VUMC Responds to Conservative Outrage Over Pediatric Transgender Clinic

Vanderbilt University Medical Center will temporarily pause gender affirmation surgeries on patients younger than 18 after Tennessee Republicans and conservative media figures recently called for the Vanderbilt Pediatric Transgender Clinic to cease operations. 

In a letter sent to Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), C. Wright Pinson, deputy CEO and chief health system officer for VUMC, says that among those patients receiving transgender care, an average of five per year received surgery. Of those patients, all were at least 16, and none received genital surgeries. 

VUMC notes that it follows standards of care of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, the Endocrine Society and a 2021 Tennessee law that prohibits providing hormone therapy to prepubescent minors. WPATH published a new version of its recommendations for health care professionals in early September, which VUMC says it will review, along with advice from local and national clinical experts. VUMC reps anticipate that process taking several months.

The most recent WPATH guidelines do not give a specific age recommendation for chest masculinization surgery, but instead base recommendations on the child’s development and medical team recommendations. The standards of care also do not recommend phalloplasty in youth under 18, and while vaginoplasty surgeries are relatively uncommon in minors, the standards state that “there may be a benefit for some adolescents to having these procedures performed before the age of 18.”

The letter from VUMC is in response to a late-September letter penned by Tennessee Republicans. 

"While those 18 years and older are recognized as legal adults and free to make decisions in their best interests, it is an egregious error of judgment that an institution as highly respected as Vanderbilt would condone (and promote) harmful and irreversible procedures for minor children in the name of profit," the letter from Republicans reads in part, calling the clinic's practices "nothing less than abuse."

VUMC addressed the videos tweeted out by Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh directly, while emphasizing the right for VUMC employees to be excused from procedures they believe are “morally objectionable.” 

“VUMC serves as the employment home for over 40,000 people and our people express their views in many forums, including hundreds of open conferences on our campus facilities each year,” the letter reads. “Comments from videos posted on social media that are obtained at these kinds of events should not be construed as statements of VUMC policy.” 

VUMC did not comment and instead directed the Scene to a tweet by Zachary.