He\u2019s 17 and lives in the Chicago suburbs. He loves theater and recently helped direct a play at his high school. He takes competitive AP courses and is working on his Eagle Scout project.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s been on a journey for four years.<\/p>\n
Once a week, the transgender teen injects testosterone into his body. He\u2019s had his eggs frozen in case he wants to have his own biological children one day. He talked with his parents and his psychologist and decided he was ready for the next step of treatment: top surgery to remove breast tissue.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting this treatment isn\u2019t fixing something that\u2019s wrong with me,\u201d the teen said. \u201cIt\u2019s just helping me grow more into who I want to be and who I can feel most comfortable existing as.\u201d<\/p>\n
KFF Health News and NPR are not identifying the teen by name or using his mother\u2019s last name because both are concerned he could be targeted for being transgender.<\/p>\n
The teen\u2019s mom, Jane, waited for a call to schedule the surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a> of Chicago. Then, she received a voicemail from the hospital. She said she knew what the message would be even before she listened to it: The surgery wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n She had already read on social media that Lurie Children\u2019s, located near downtown Chicago, would pause gender-affirming surgeries<\/a> for people younger than 19 in the wake of an executive order<\/a> from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Jane called Lurie back to confirm that surgeries were on hold<\/a>, then told her son when he got home from school that day.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Hey, we are going to take care of you,’\u201d she recalled. \u201c\u2018We will make it through this.’\u201d<\/p>\n It was devastating, Jane said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are being threatened,\u201d she said. \u201cThe trans community is being threatened, and parents are being threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n Her son said he feels hurt and confused. His doctors told him after Trump was elected in November that they would fight as hard as they legally could to support him, he recalled. But then Lurie\u2019s leaders decided to cancel pending surgeries and stop scheduling new ones.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that it\u2019s not like a personal thing, like they didn\u2019t look at me directly and go, \u2018Yeah, you don\u2019t deserve that,’\u201d the teen said. \u201cBut it kind of feels like it sometimes, especially when a lot of what the sentiment has been, in general, towards trans people in society.\u201d<\/p>\n On Feb. 7<\/a>, a Lurie Children\u2019s spokesperson confirmed the hospital would pause gender-affirming surgeries.<\/p>\n KFF Health News and NPR spoke with 10 patients or their parents in the Chicago area about how this affects their lives. They described their disappointment, their loss of hope for one day having a procedure, and their anger at the timing, when they already feel threatened and marginalized<\/a> by hateful rhetoric<\/a> around the country.<\/p>\n These families fear that they eventually could lose access to all gender-affirming care, such as therapy, puberty blockers, and hormones. They\u2019ve also questioned why Illinois officials who have vowed to protect transgender rights have been quiet on what\u2019s happening at Lurie Children\u2019s and elsewhere. Northwestern Memorial Hospital<\/a> in Chicago has also stopped such surgeries<\/a> for minors, families told KFF Health News and NPR.<\/p>\n Lurie Children\u2019s decision came after Trump\u2019s executive order on Jan. 28 threatened to cut federal funding to health care providers offering gender-affirming medical care.<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child\u2019s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,\u201d according to Trump\u2019s order. \u201cThis dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation\u2019s history, and it must end.\u201d<\/p>\n Another patient, a 16-year-old boy from Chicago, had a surgery date for a double mastectomy procedure \u2014 until Lurie Children\u2019s canceled it. KFF Health News and NPR are not identifying him because he fears for his personal safety.<\/p>\n The teen felt betrayed by the cancellation, he said. He has been binding his chest for more than five years, but doing so causes rib and back pain.<\/p>\n Every morning, he faces a choice: bind his chest to fully \u201cpass\u201d as male, or skip that and experience a day without pain. He avoids sports because he can\u2019t breathe as well when his chest is bound. A large part of his gender dysphoria is centered on having breasts, he said.<\/p>\n Lurie Children\u2019s deemed the teen\u2019s surgery \u201cmedically necessary,\u201d according to medical documents his family shared with KFF Health News and NPR.<\/p>\n \u201cLurie\u2019s decision set a precedent not only for other care providers but also for their patients,\u201d said the teen. \u201cThey have established that they are no longer the safe haven they have claimed to be for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of Lurie Children\u2019s patients were referred for surgery to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a prominent research hospital nearby. Their initial Northwestern appointments were later canceled. A Northwestern spokesperson declined repeated requests to comment.<\/p>\n Parents whose transgender children are receiving other types of medical care at Lurie Children\u2019s, such as hormone therapy, worry about what the hospital might stop providing next.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can\u2019t get estrogen in a year, what do we do?\u201d says the mother of a 15-year-old transgender girl. KFF Health News and NPR are not naming her because she fears retaliation against her daughter if she is identified. \u201cParents with means are talking about leaving the country.\u201d<\/p>\n The Politics of Pausing Surgeries<\/strong><\/p>\n In a statement, physician Robert Garofalo<\/a> said he hears and understands the frustration. He is the founding director of the Gender Development Program<\/a> at Lurie Children\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cMy life\u2019s work has been devoted to these children, adolescents, and their families,\u201d Garofalo wrote. \u201cAs someone who has spent his entire career at Lurie Children\u2019s, I can assure you these kids and these families matter to this institution. It\u2019s important to know that this decision was painstakingly difficult, and it was made amid unprecedented circumstances and external pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n The hospital\u2019s decision, Garofalo wrote, was based on the belief it could help safeguard most of the clinical services offered by his program.<\/p>\n Surgery among trans youth is rare<\/a>, researchers have found.<\/p>\n After Trump\u2019s executive order, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul<\/a> and 14 of his peers in other states vowed to protect access to treatment. In a statement<\/a>, Raoul said the Illinois Human Rights Act<\/a> prohibits health care providers from discriminating against patients because of their gender identity.<\/p>\n But recently he told KFF Health News and NPR that it would be hard to make a case<\/a> that Lurie and Northwestern are violating state law.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t look at Lurie or Northwestern as a bad actor here,\u201d Raoul, a Democrat, said after an event on April 1, at which he told a packed room of civic leaders in a restaurant near downtown Chicago to stand up against intimidation<\/a> by the White House. It\u2019s not discrimination, Raoul said, \u201cwhen the federal government is holding a gun to your head.\u201d<\/p>\n When KFF Health News and NPR asked whether Lurie Children\u2019s is violating the Human Rights Act, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker<\/a> didn\u2019t answer. But he did say hospitals are being \u201cblackmailed\u201d into limiting care.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the hospitals\u2019 fault,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cBelieve me. I know the people at Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital, I know the people who run most of these hospitals, and I can tell you that they want to do the right thing for their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Lurie Children\u2019s and some hospitals across the country<\/a> have paused surgeries or other types of gender-affirming treatment despite federal judges who issued rulings blocking Trump\u2019s order<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Hospital Confronts an Uncertain Legal Future<\/strong><\/p>\n Lurie Children\u2019s has one of the oldest gender-affirming care programs in the country, launched in 2013, and still offers hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and behavioral health services.<\/p>\n Medical providers, patients, and parents point to research<\/a> that underscores the crucial and even lifesaving role<\/a> that transgender medical care can provide, such as helping decrease depression and anxiety<\/a>. Access to gender-affirming care is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> and the American Medical Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n The transgender community is small, and families say they feel targeted because of this. In 2023, around 3% of high school students in the U.S. identified as transgender, and an additional 2% identified as questioning, according to a 2023 study<\/a> from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n Transgender youths experience more violence, bullying, and suicidal thoughts than their non-trans peers, the CDC study found. About 1 in 4 students who were transgender or questioned their gender identity attempted suicide in the past year, the study found.<\/p>\n In recent years, many states have cracked down on access<\/a> to gender-affirming care for minors, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Just over half the country \u2014 27 states<\/a> \u2014 ban or restrict access. Recently, Iowa took the step of stripping civil rights protections<\/a> from people who are trans or nonbinary.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Mack, a pediatric critical care physician in South Carolina, has witnessed the consequences of a ban in her state. She has treated several children who attempted suicide or died by suicide because they couldn\u2019t access treatment, according to conversations she had with the patients or family members.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things that leaves a mark that I can\u2019t unsee,\u201d Mack said of her experience.<\/p>\n This Teen Already Had His Surgery but Still Worries<\/strong><\/p>\n Ben Garcia, 18, a Chicago high school senior, offers a glimpse into life post-surgery. In 2023, he had a double mastectomy. He believes that without the medical care he\u2019s received for the past several years, he would be a different person, likely more withdrawn and less confident.<\/p>\n \u201cThis care has allowed me to be a lot more comfortable in who I am, in the way that I present myself to the world,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n Garcia and his mother, Michelle Vallet, emphasized that his path to surgery was a slow process that proceeded with care and deliberation. Once puberty started, Garcia started to have questions and wanted to explore what it would mean to delay the changes occurring in his body. At that time, he was around 10 or 11 years old.<\/p>\n Vallet reached out to Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital and booked a first appointment for Garcia. It lasted three hours, she said.<\/p>\n Much of the public misunderstands the process, Vallet said, and transgender kids have become some of the most scrutinized patients in America.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they feel like trans kids are just one day waking up saying, \u2018I want to be a boy,’\u201d Vallet said. \u201cThey go to the gender clinic, wham bam. That\u2019s not how this care happens.\u201d<\/p>\n She, her son, and the medical staff at Lurie Children\u2019s talked through the risks of treatment, the possible side effects, and the next steps.<\/p>\n Garcia went through mental health evaluations over multiple appointments before he could take puberty blockers to stop his body from going through changes. Then he started taking low doses of testosterone, a hormone. Gradually, his voice dropped, and he grew facial hair.<\/p>\n Garcia still takes testosterone shots every week and gets checkups at Lurie Children\u2019s to monitor his hormone levels. He\u2019s now nervous this care could also be affected. His mother is worried that the hospital might suspend all types of gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to see hospitals as big as Lurie comply in advance,\u201d Vallet said, referring to the executive order\u2019s threats to cut hospital payments. \u201cIt feels like a betrayal. \u2026 There\u2019s federal dollars on the line, but at a certain point in the environment we\u2019re in, you have to say, \u2018No, I\u2019m not doing this.’\u201d<\/p>\n The suburban 17-year-old who never got a surgery date is waiting to hear back from other hospitals. He has a preliminary appointment booked at one hospital in May, but there\u2019s a waitlist. Surgery is likely months away.<\/p>\n He\u2019s convinced that the medical care he\u2019s already received has saved his life and given him hope for his future. He thinks about studying medicine in college, inspired by the care he\u2019s received.<\/p>\n His mom, Jane, said he\u2019s thriving.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of him, because he just makes sense,\u201d Jane said as her son described all that\u2019s involved in being able to have surgery. \u201cHe makes sense, and people are listening to him make sense and giving him what he needs to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n This article is from a partnership that includes <\/em>WBEZ<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>NPR<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>KFF Health News<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n