US military families with transgender children in Europe had nowhere to go for specialized sex reassignment hormone therapy due to the lack of suitable doctors. According to the Pentagon newspaper Stars and Stripes.
The publication states that hormone therapy for children and adolescents within the framework of gender identity was included in the military’s health insurance in 2016, and by 2017, 528 children from the US military had applied for help to change their gender.
Some moved to Europe with their parents. However, there was only one Landstuhl clinic providing such care, which stopped accepting new patients due to workload.
According to publication reports, counseling and screening were not available for transgender children from military families, despite the high risk of suicide, depression, and other mental health problems.
It is noted that there are only two European clinics within an hour’s drive of the US military base where you can get hormone therapy and other related care for transgender children. However, the demand for their services from Europeans is “huge”.
European doctors argue that complex work, such as helping transgender children, should be done in patients’ mother tongue.
“These are in-depth conversations about gender identity. We are talking about sexuality and intimate conversations that should be done in their mother tongue,” he said.
According to him, at least 12 consultations are required according to European standards before hormone therapy is given to transgender children.
“It is not enough for the patient to say “I want to be a girl” and to take puberty-blocking drugs. You have to be careful, hardworking and careful. And this rigor requires time and experience from healthcare providers, ”the doctor emphasized.
He stressed the importance of “comprehensive psychotherapeutic evaluation” before starting, adding that hormone therapy with testosterone or estrogen, which causes physical changes, can lead to infertility.
Lehmann-Kant said that in the last ten years, about 200 young patients have applied to him with requests for gender reassignment, and 100 of them have come to the clinic in the last two years.
Due to lack of space, the clinic had to turn away two trans children – a trans boy and a trans girl – from American military families stationed in Germany.
Pentagon Health Department spokesman Peter Graves told the publication that to address the problem of transgender children, medical care spending for the US military in Europe needs to be increased.
Previously reportedSenators Marco Rubio and Jim Banks drafted a bill banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.
Dubbed the “Military Readiness Act,” the document bans military service for “persons who identify as trans people with a history of gender dysphoria.”
The bill makes an exception for transgender people who are ready to describe themselves in documents and communications as representatives of their birth sex.
It was noted that if the law is passed, the ban will affect approximately 150,000 trans military personnel, some of whom have completed their “educational years”.