{"id":2464,"date":"2025-08-26T17:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/michigan-medicine-discontinues-gender-affirming-care-for-minors\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:49:07","slug":"michigan-medicine-discontinues-gender-affirming-care-for-minors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/michigan-medicine-discontinues-gender-affirming-care-for-minors\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Medicine discontinues gender affirming care for minors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The University of Michigan, along with Michigan Medicine, <a href=\"https:\/\/publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu\/key-issues\/university-message-on-care-services\/\">announced<\/a> Monday that they will no longer provide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/news\/what-gender-affirming-care-your-questions-answered#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20goal%20is%20not%20treatment,)%20on%20gender%2Daffirming%20care.\">gender-affirming care<\/a> \u2014 including puberty blockers and hormone therapies \u2014 for individuals younger than 19, citing a federal criminal and civil investigation against the institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an email to The Michigan Daily, Mary Masson, director of public relations at Michigan Medicine, confirmed the ban.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this time, we will be discontinuing these therapies for all individuals under the age of 19,\u201d Masson wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The shift comes as gender-affirming care has become the subject of nationwide legal battles following an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation\/\">executive order<\/a> signed by President Donald Trump in January restricting such treatments for minors. The Trump administration also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/research\/nih-pulls-funding-from-umich-transgender-health-research\/\">cut<\/a> federal grants supporting transgender health research earlier this year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>While access to gender-affirming care <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganpublic.org\/health\/2025-06-18\/gender-affirming-care-remains-legal-in-michigan-despite-court-ruling\">remains legal<\/a> in Michigan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/\">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/a> launched an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/shots-health-news\/2025\/07\/08\/nx-s1-5449163\/hhs-investigate-michigan-hospital-religious-exemptions-gender-affirming-care-church-amendments\">investigation<\/a> in June into the case of a physician assistant who alleged she was fired by Michigan Medicine for requesting a religious exemption from performing gender-affirming care. In mid-July, the University and Michigan Medicine <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/university-michigan-transgender-health-care-minors\">received<\/a> a subpoena from the HHS as part of a national probe.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks later, on Aug. 1, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a multistate lawsuit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/ag\/news\/press-releases\/2025\/08\/01\/attorney-general-nessel-sues\">challenging<\/a> the administration\u2019s use of criminal prosecution threats to restrict care and pressure health care providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the statement issued Aug. 25, University Public Affairs officials acknowledged the seriousness of the decision and wrote it would continue working with affected patients and families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recognize the gravity and impact of this decision for our patients and our community,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe are working closely with all those impacted, and we will continuously support the well-being of our patients, their families, and our teams. We are deeply grateful to our clinicians for their unyielding commitment to providing the highest quality care, and to all of our team members for their dedication to helping our patients, and to supporting each other, as we navigate these changes together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Research has found that <a href=\"https:\/\/ir.lib.uwo.ca\/etd\/8202\/\">interruptions<\/a> in gender-affirming care are <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC11063965\/\">associated<\/a> with elevated <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2789423\">risks<\/a> of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and self-harm among transgender youth. Such therapies are not unique to transgender care, and have been <a href=\"https:\/\/nyulangone.org\/conditions\/disorders-of-puberty\/treatments\/medications-for-disorders-of-puberty\">prescribed<\/a> to treat conditions such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK544313\/\">precocious puberty<\/a> \u2014 when children begin puberty unusually early \u2014 and other pediatric endocrine conditions.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><em>Senior News Editor Emma Spring can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/news-briefs\/michigan-medicine-discontinues-gender-affirming-care-for-minors\/mailto:sprinemm@umich.edu\"><em>sprinemm@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Michigan, along with Michigan Medicine, announced Monday that they will no longer provide gender-affirming care \u2014 including puberty blockers and hormone therapies \u2014 for individuals younger than 19, citing a federal criminal and civil investigation against the institution.\u00a0 In an email to The Michigan Daily, Mary Masson, director of public relations at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2662,2044,2661,2207,2390,222,2663],"class_list":{"0":"post-2464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-affirming","9":"tag-care","10":"tag-discontinues","11":"tag-gender","12":"tag-medicine","13":"tag-michigan","14":"tag-minors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2466,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions\/2466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}