Children's Hospital in Ohio Opens Gender-Affirming Medical Center

A children's hospital in Ohio has opened a new multidisciplinary center that will provide specialized, gender-affirming care for young transgender and LGBTQ+ patients.

"We’ve always treated youths who identify as transgender,” Dr. Crystal Cole, medical director of the Center for Gender Affirming Medicine at Akron Children's Hospital, said in a statement. “By offering the care and support these patients need in a location close to home, we’re helping them to have a better quality of life.”

Gender-affirming medicine involves medical and social workers helping to provide care for transgender patients "seeking characteristics more aligned with their gender identity," the Akron Beacon Journal reports. The American Academy of Pediatrics last year recommended that youth who identify as transgender and gender diverse "have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care that is provided in a safe and inclusive clinical space."

Among the services offered at the new center, the hospital lists education; supportive care for LGBTQ+ youth and their families; gender-affirming hormones; pubertal suppression; mental health care coordination; and preventative care. The center will see patients ages 7 and older. Along with medical providers, they'll be able to interact with a social worker, nurse coordinator, mental health therapist and endocrinologist, according to the hospital.

Rebecca Callahan, executive director of CANAPI – an Akron nonprofit that focuses on the well-being of the LGBTQ+ community – told FOX 8 News Cleveland the center will offer medical care in Akron when previously, many patients were forced to seek such specialized treatment in Cleveland, which is about 40 miles away.

"There's a barrier for transportation because they have to go out of the area for finding doctors that understand and are able to treat non-binary youth," Callahan said.

Staff members at the center told Fox 8 that 60 patients had signed up for care so far. As transgender youth are particularly at risk of suicide and homelessness, Cole said the center hopes to provide a supportive environment as well as personalized care during a crucial time of physical and mental health development for these patients.

“A lot of times these families don’t have resources. They don’t know where to go. Their child comes out and identifies as trans and they may notice the child is having some issues with it, whether it’s bullying or difficulty with gender,” Cole told the Akron Beacon Journal. “We’re that first stop for families.”