The Center for Gender Affirming Medicine at Akron Children’s Hospital will offer a new multidisciplinary approach that specializes in the treatment of all patients – regardless of sex.
As part of the Adolescent Medicine department, the Center for Gender Affirming Medicine will offer care and a variety of services to transgender patients and LGBTQ+ youth. On staff will be gender-affirming medical providers as well as a social worker, nurse coordinator, mental health therapist, and endocrinologist. Patients must be age 7 and up to receive care at this facility.
Among the services provided will be the following:
- Pubertal suppression
- Gender-affirming hormones
- Mental health care coordination
- Well checks/preventative visits
- Education
- Supportive care for LGBTQ+ youth and their families
“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.”
Providing transgender patients with a supportive environment and medical care tailored to their needs is one way to help these youths during a crucial time in their physical and mental health development, Cole added.
According to the CDC, for youth to thrive in schools and communities, they need to feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe and supported. A positive school climate has been associated with decreased depression, suicidal feelings, substance use, and unexcused school absences among LGB students. Nearly one-third (29%) of LGB youth had attempted suicide at least once in the prior year compared to 6% of heterosexual youth. In 2014, young gay and bisexual men accounted for 8 out of 10 HIV diagnoses among youth. Transgender youths are at a higher risk of suicide and homelessness.
Akron Children’s Hospital is nationally ranked in six pediatric specialties. It’s a children’s general medical and surgical facility – as well as a teaching hospital. Fun fact: it opened in 1890 as a nursery and is now a pediatric medical center servicing much of Ohio.