Vanderbilt To Cease Major Gender-Affirming Surgeries For Trans Adults

Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, has announced it will cease performing some major gender-affirming plastic surgeries for adults due to “operational limitations and lack of surgical coverage.”

Apparently, the primary physician who performed such procedures is leaving the hospital.

From Erin in the Morning:

Whereas some procedures are highly specialized—like phalloplasties and vaginoplasties, which are part of a series of procedures colloquially known as kinds of “bottom surgery”—the phrase “gender-affirming” plastic surgeries can also include rhinoplasties, breast augmentation, and mastectomies, all of which are also commonly sought by cisgender people.

Presumably, this means that other doctors in the plastic surgery unit would at least have the know-how to provide this care. But VUMC would not tell Erin in the Morning whether trans people will be barred from these procedures, even as cisgender people’s access to such treatment evidently remains uninhibited.

At least two sources close to the matter told Erin in the Morning that the care will sunset over a period of six months, and that some patients may be referred to the closest nearby hospitals that perform “bottom surgeries” for trans people. But those hospitals are hundreds of miles away.

What isn’t clear is whether the primary physician is leaving due to a hostile political environment…?

As has been reported by many outlets, many doctors are undergoing a mass exodus from anti-trans, anti-science red states.

(lead photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Medical Center via Globe Newswire)