Healthcare for trans youth
The Ohio Way*
HEALTHCARE FOR TRANSGENDER CHILDREN
*The Ohio Way was ABOLISHED when the Ohio House and Ohio Senate overrode Governor DeWine's Veto of HB 68
Ohio is home to 9 world-class children’s hospitals. Two are ranked in the top 6 hospitals in the United States:
Cincinnati Children’s is #1 in the nation.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital is #6
We also are home to: Akron Children’s, Cleveland Clinic Children’s, Dayton Children’s, Rainbow Babies and Children’s, Shriner’s Children’s, Toledo’s Children’s and Mercy Health Children’s.
Our pediatric hospitals are a jewel in Ohio’s portfolio, drawing employers, workers, students, researchers, doctors, and children in need of care to Ohio from around the world.
At times, we take for granted we have world-class pediatric hospitals within a few hours drive of every family in Ohio. When we need them for our kids struggling with both familiar (flu, asthma, cancer) and rare (skeletal dysplasias, Fanconi anemia) we trust them with our children’s lives.
Why wouldn’t we trust them with the lives of our transgender children?
ALL 9 of our trusted Children’s Hospitals support counseling and screening for other mental and physical health conditions as the first line of treatment for gender dysphoric youth.
Each child is cared for by a multi-disciplinary team including pediatricians, endocrinologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and family therapists who are trained in differential diagnosis (sorting through and testing for multiple potential diagnosis and symptoms before choosing an initial plan of care.) These doctors monitor children carefully for side effects, adjusting treatment as necessary.
Less than 20% of pediatric patients receive puberty blockers and/or hormone treatment.
Children in Ohio who do receive gender affirming medical care (puberty blockers and hormones) are extreme cases, and our hospitals are well-equipped to treat these patients using the least invasive treatment options.
None of Ohio pediatric hospitals support or perform surgeries on youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Ohio parents of transgender children and their trusted Ohio doctors are well aware of the studies, often pushed by religiously affiliated groups or those who believe a trans identity is delusional, that advise against the use of puberty blockers and hormones.
Ohio parents , with the support of their child’s doctor and psychologists, are more than capable of the task of sifting through opinions and data to determine the right course of treatment option for their child.
Over 500 Ohio citizens gave testimony supporting the need for Ohio’s whole-child approach to care for transgender youth. These witnesses included Ohio parents of transgender children, their families, and others who know and care about them.
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/135/hb68/committee
Healthcare provider testimony from Ohio included:
Ohio Psychological Association
Ohio Hospital Association
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Ohio Academy of Family Physicieans
Ohio Counseling Association
Equitas Health
Akron Children’s Hospital
National Association of Social Workers
Cleveland Clinic
Public Childen’s Services Association of Ohio
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Ohio Psychiatric Association
Ohio Medical Association
Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Clintonville Counseling and Wellness
Cleveland Clinic Children’s
UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s
The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health Providers
National Healthcare Providers who support comprehensive gender-affirming care:
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- American Academy of Dermatology
- American Academy of Family Physicians
- American Academy of Nursing
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Academy of Physician Assistants
- American College Health Association
- American College of Nurse-Midwives
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- American College of Physicians
- American Counseling Association
- American Heart Association
- American Medical Association
- American Medical Student Association
- American Nurses Association
- American Osteopathic Association
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Psychological Association
- American Public Health Association
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons
- Endocrine Society
- Federation of Pediatric Organizations
- GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
- National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health
- National Association of Social Workers
- National Commission on Correctional Health Care
- Pediatric Endocrine Society
- Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
- World Medical Association
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health
Against Medical Advice (AMA)
On April 23, 2024
Children across Ohio will be discharged from their treatment plans
WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT
AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE
Help your representative assume liability
Discharge against medical advice (AMA):
Defined as the act of leaving the hospital before the treating physician recommends discharge.
Less than 2% of patients leave the hospital AMA in the US, but these patients cause major problems for practitioners, their communities, and pose a risk to themselves. AMA patients have a 12X higher risk of costly re admissions and a greater likelihood of death within the next 12 months.
Documentation in a patient’s chart and signed waivers of what was said and done is critical.
Below is our documentation of the information provided to Ohio Lawmakers prior to their HB 68 Veto Override which forcibly discharged our children from their healthcare treatment plans AMA without parental consent.
These lawmakers, without medical training, without reading our children’s charts, without having examined them or speaking to their mental health care providers, without exception, forced these children into a model of care that assumes transgender people are simply mentally ill, with ZERO evidence showing that psychological care alone is effective treatment for gender dysphoria.
MYTH: “Most Children Outgrow being Transgender” (aka: 80% Desistance).
FACT:
The most pervasive and damaging stereotype about transgender children is that they are merely going through a phase. The 80% figure comes from a 2013 study in Amsterdam conducted by Thomas Steensma, PhD and others. The study has been widely criticized for flawed methodology and the author himself has said that measuring desistance was never the intent of the study.
MYTH: those who receive gender affirming care will regret it.
FACT:
Fewer than three percent of those who receive gender-affirming medical care discontinue or regret that care.
MYTH: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE IMPROVES MENTAL HEALTH.
FACT:
Gender-affirming care (GAC) is defined as any kind of medical care that people receive to align their body with their gender identity. This includes therapy, consultations with doctors, hormones, medication, or surgery for those over the age of 18. Gender-affirming care is life-saving medical care for the majority of people who receive it.