In anticipation of full-scale state and federal bans, the University of Utah’s health arm is preemptively ending all remaining hormonal care for transgender youth.
Patients and their families were notified of the U.’s decision to fully discontinue care earlier this month. Providers will be required to stop all such treatments by April 15.
Doctors have also been instructed they are not allowed to help coordinate hormonal care for patients elsewhere in the state, where it still might be an option.
“We recognize that this change may be distressing,” a spokesperson for University of Utah Health said in a statement.
Already, the U. had shut down its popular health clinic for LGBTQ youth after the Legislature’s 2023 ban under SB16, which prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming care to any new transgender youth patients.
At the time, that was considered a “moratorium” and only applied to minors who hadn’t already been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Existing patients have been able to continue seeking care.
But the Utah Legislature is poised this session to extend that moratorium to an all-out permanent ban, requiring doctors to effectively “de-transition” remaining patients.
That comes as President Donald Trump has also pushed, on a federal level, to end access to all gender-affirming care for transgender youth. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has threatened to withhold federal funds from hospitals and health care institutions that provide that treatment, which would include the U. as a public facility.
It’s because of that “evolving state and federal landscape” that the U. says it is moving away from offering specialized care for transgender patients under the age of 18.
There was already a limited numbers of patients under SB16, the U.’s health care spokesperson said, and several more were going to age out in the coming year. There are fewer than 150 remaining patients, the school noted.
One of those Utah patients, a 13-year-old, is now traveling to Colorado to receive care at a private pay clinic. The Salt Lake Tribune has agreed not to identify the child or her parents due to their concerns about her medical privacy and the family’s safety.
“We at least found a new place,” her mom said. “But every escape avenue just keeps being closed off.”
They worry about a federal ban and whether Utah may go after families who seek out-of-state care. The Republican-majority Utah Legislature has also proposed a bill that would require judges in custody cases for transgender children to give preferential favor to a parent who declines to support their child’s gender identity.
That and similar measures have been filed despite the Legislature’s own commissioned study that concluded gender-affirming care for transgender minors has largely positive outcomes and reduces the likelihood of suicide. Hormone treatment, in particular, comes with little risk, the experts found.
[Read more: Utah lawmakers sweep their own study on care for trans kids under the rug as they push to ban it]
The 13-year-old had been diagnosed and started receiving gender-affirming care in Utah just prior to the 2023 moratorium bill. She has been on puberty blockers and was set to start hormone therapy this spring, her mom said.
The teen had been experiencing suicidal ideation before getting some health care support and continues to worry about it, her mom said, particularly as she feels lawmakers are openly attacking the transgender community.
“There is harm in constantly having to talk to your kid about what the Legislature is doing,” her mom said.
The family had originally reached out to the Colorado clinic as a backup, but ended up going there for the first time this month, shortly after the U. notified them. The Colorado clinic doesn’t accept federal funding, so it hasn’t yet faced repercussions; it also operates in a largely Democrat-led state and hasn’t been directed to close.
Now, the mom says, it takes nearly eight hours to reach the care their daughter needs by car, and the teen has to miss school to go. They say they feel lucky they have the means to do that, as other families may not.
When they got home after their first visit to the Colorado clinic, the mom said, the teen cried “at the enormity of it all” and how hard it has become to get care.