UVa Children’s Hospital Offers Transgender Health Services

UVa Children’s Hospital will now include transgender health services for youth ages 11 to 25. 

This new development seeks to support gender-dysphoric minors, and will allow UVa Children’s Hospital to offer transgender health services. The UVa Children’s Hospital now also offers access to the Teen and Young Adult Clinic.

The Teen & Young Adult Clinic offers services such as puberty blockers, surgery referrals, cross-sex hormones, therapy, educational resources, sex and contraceptive education, and referrals for evaluations of gender dysphoria.

UVA Health also includes gender and transgender health services, including gender-confirmation surgery, hormone therapy, and voice therapy.

Gender-confirmation surgery at UVA Health includes top surgery, bottom surgery, and facial surgery, in which UVA Health will “add or remove sex characteristics and features so that your physical appearance matches your gender identity.”

“Top surgery removes or adds breasts. Bottom surgeries remove and construct genitalia. Facial plastic surgery adjusts and shapes the structure of your face to look more masculine or feminine… People who identify as nonbinary, intersex, and gender fluid may also benefit from some of these procedures.”

UVA Health

For transgender hormone therapy, the UVA Health page explains that “as a trans woman, trans man, or nonbinary person, you may want your body to look and feel differently… whatever your goal, we’ll work to find the right transgender hormone therapy for you.”

 These services are now available for youth ages 11 to 25, with certain treatments requiring parent or guardian consent.

UVa Children’s Health has added Professor Laura Shaffer, Ph.D., chief of the hospital’s section of pediatric psychology, to the staff of the UVa Teen and Young Adult Center Transgender Health Services.

UVa Children’s Hospital also includes information for parents and caregivers of trans youth, which provides information on understanding the terms and concepts of gender identity. It describes that the term transgender is used “when your child’s sense of their gender differs from the sex assigned to them at birth.”
UVA Health also explains to parents that “research shows that transgender teens thrive with support and acceptance. Their mental health improves with affirmation from loving parents and caregivers.”