{"id":24148,"date":"2025-03-17T21:55:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T22:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24148"},"modified":"2025-03-17T23:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T23:23:42","slug":"citing-trumps-order-v-a-halts-most-transgender-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24148","title":{"rendered":"Citing Trump\u2019s Order, V.A. Halts Most Transgender Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Department of Veterans Affairs is phasing out<\/a> gender-affirming medical treatments for veterans, including hormone treatment<\/a> for patients newly diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the V.A. announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

The V.A. will continue hormone treatment for veterans who currently receive it or were receiving it when they separated from the military. The rationale is that abrupt cessation can be harmful to patients\u2019 health.<\/p>\n

The policy change was made to comply with an executive order by President Trump, titled \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government<\/a>,\u201d the V.A. said in a news release.<\/p>\n

That order states that the United States recognizes only two sexes, male and female, which \u201care not changeable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI mean no disrespect to anyone, but V.A. should not be focused on helping veterans attempt to change their sex,\u201d said Doug Collins, the V.A. secretary.<\/p>\n

Transgender veterans will continue to be welcome at the V.A., he added, \u201cbut if veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The V.A. has been providing treatment for gender transition to veterans since 2011. It has never provided surgeries, but it has offered supportive services<\/a>. In addition to hormone therapy, these have included mental health care, preoperative evaluations and letters supporting the need for procedures, as well as postoperative and long-term care.<\/p>\n

Fertility services, prosthetic devices like wigs, and voice coaching were also offered. Those services had been authorized under a V.A. directive on guiding health care for transgender and intersex veterans know as 1341(4), which has been rescinded.<\/p>\n

Many mental health providers at the V.A. have had concerns about their ability to continue providing adequate care to transgender patients after they were ordered to remove rainbow flags and lanyards, pamphlets describing services offered to L.G.B.T.Q.+ veterans, and wall posters that read \u201cAll are welcome here\u201d and \u201cWe serve all who have served.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mary Brinkmeyer, a psychologist who coordinated care for L.G.B.T.Q.+ veterans at the Hampton V.A. Medical Center in Virginia, refused to remove signs and fliers. She recently resigned, fearing that mental health care for transgender veterans would be compromised.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur code of ethics is, \u2018First do no harm,\u2019 and if you\u2019re caught between an institutional demand and your ethical code, you have to resolve it in favor of the ethics code,\u201d Dr. Brinkmeyer said.<\/p>\n

The cessation of hormone treatment, along with the recent designation of V.A. bathrooms and inpatient rooms by biological sex, \u201cwill have a real chilling effect on veterans\u2019 willingness to seek care for gender dysphoria,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Studies indicate that gender dysphoria is much higher among veterans than among the general population and that the risk of suicide-related events is as much as 20 times higher among veterans with gender dysphoria than in the general Veterans Health Administration population.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf veterans don\u2019t have other health insurance \u2014 and many transgender veterans are homeless or underemployed \u2014 will they not seek care if they\u2019re suicidal rather than go to the V.A.?\u201d Dr. Brinkmeyer asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Veterans Affairs is phasing out gender-affirming medical treatments for veterans, including hormone treatment for patients newly diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the V.A. announced on Monday.The V.A. will continue hormone treatment for veterans who currently receive it or were receiving it when they separated from the military. The rationale is that abrupt cessation can be harmful to patients\u2019 health.The policy change was made to comply with an executive order by President Trump, titled \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,\u201d the V.A. said in a news release.That order states that the United States recognizes only two sexes, male and female, which \u201care not changeable.\u201d\u201cI mean no disrespect to anyone, but V.A. should not be focused on helping veterans attempt to change their sex,\u201d said Doug Collins, the V.A. secretary.Transgender veterans will continue to be welcome at the V.A., he added, \u201cbut if veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.\u201dThe V.A. has been providing treatment for gender transition to veterans since 2011. It has never provided surgeries, but it has offered supportive services. In addition to hormone therapy, these have included mental health care, preoperative evaluations and letters supporting the need for procedures, as well as postoperative and long-term care.Fertility services, prosthetic devices like wigs, and voice coaching were also offered. Those services had been authorized under a V.A. directive on guiding health care for transgender and intersex veterans know as 1341(4), which has been rescinded.Many mental health providers at the V.A. have had concerns about their ability to continue providing adequate care to transgender patients after they were ordered to remove rainbow flags and lanyards, pamphlets describing services offered to L.G.B.T.Q.+ veterans, and wall posters that read \u201cAll are welcome here\u201d and \u201cWe serve all who have served.\u201dMary Brinkmeyer, a psychologist who coordinated care for L.G.B.T.Q.+ veterans at the Hampton V.A. Medical Center in Virginia, refused to remove signs and fliers. She recently resigned, fearing that mental health care for transgender veterans would be compromised.\u201cOur code of ethics is, \u2018First do no harm,\u2019 and if you\u2019re caught between an institutional demand and your ethical code, you have to resolve it in favor of the ethics code,\u201d Dr. Brinkmeyer said.The cessation of hormone treatment, along with the recent designation of V.A. bathrooms and inpatient rooms by biological sex, \u201cwill have a real chilling effect on veterans\u2019 willingness to seek care for gender dysphoria,\u201d she said.Studies indicate that gender dysphoria is much higher among veterans than among the general population and that the risk of suicide-related events is as much as 20 times higher among veterans with gender dysphoria than in the general Veterans Health Administration population.\u201cIf veterans don\u2019t have other health insurance \u2014 and many transgender veterans are homeless or underemployed \u2014 will they not seek care if they\u2019re suicidal rather than go to the V.A.?\u201d Dr. Brinkmeyer asked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24150,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24151,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24148\/revisions\/24151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}