AUSTIN (KXAN) – Gender-affirming care was rarely provided to minors from 2018 through 2022, according to new research out of Harvard University.
Researchers from the university and FOLX Health, an LGBTQIA+ healthcare service provider, analyzed private insurance claims from those five years, which represented more than five million patients ages 8 to 17. They found that puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones were seldom prescribed – to around one and 1,000 adolescents.
“Among those youth, [we looked at] which youth had a gender-related diagnosis and used either puberty suppressant medication or a gender-affirming hormone –testosterone or estrogen,” said, Jae Corman, PhD, Head of Analytics & Research at FOLX Health. “Among that, we found less than .1% of these youth had ever used one of these medications. So it's an incredibly small number.”
Further, Corman said that only 17,500 of the five million minors had received a gender-related diagnosis in the five-year period. Of those adolescents, 926 were prescribed puberty blockers, and 1,900 accessed gender-affirming hormones, Corman said.
“That's a super small number of folks across 5.1 million,” Corman continued.
Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical services that may be offered to help support someone’s gender identity, including when it differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Healthcare providers may offer the services when a patient is diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or the psychologigal distress someone may feel if their gender identity doesn’t match their sex.
“I think a lot of folks don't understand actually how rare it is to get access to this type of care,” Corman said. “It seems like there's a lot of folks that think a lot more children are getting rushed into care, and that's really not what we're finding.”
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill banning gender transition care for Texas minors in 2023. The law prohibits minors from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transition to the gender with which they identify.
After it was challenged, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the law in June 2024.
