PolitiFact – No, Boston Children’s Hospital doesn’t provide hysterectomies for children

A viral tweet falsely claims {that a} pediatric hospital is providing surgical remedy for transgender kids.

“Boston Youngsters’s Hospital is now providing ‘gender-affirming hysterectomies’ for younger ladies,” learn an Aug. 11 tweet from Libs of TikTok, a conservative Twitter account with greater than 1 million followers. 

“That is monstrous,” Stephen Miller, who labored within the Trump administration, tweeted in a reply to Libs of TikTok. “How does anybody concerned on this nonetheless have a medical license?”

Libs of TikTok’s tweet included a video of a doctor at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital discussing gender-affirming hysterectomies — or the removing of the uterus, cervix and fallopian tubes. 

Nowhere within the 33-second video did the doctor recommend that the process is obtainable to kids. The notion, nevertheless, appeared to depend on the hospital having “kids” in its title. 

The Heart for Gender Surgical procedure at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital didn’t reply to PolitiFact’s request for remark. 

Though the Heart for Gender Surgical procedure is inside a pediatric hospital, medical remedy is obtainable solely to “eligible adolescents and younger adults,” the middle’s web site mentioned.

The hospital adheres to medical tips developed by the World Skilled Affiliation for Transgender Well being, or WPATH, which does not suggest surgical remedy for kids.

“Surgical procedure isn’t step one in a gender transition,” reads the hospital’s web site. “It’s one thing that occurs after you will have already explored social and medical transition choices.”

The procedures highlighted within the tweet — hysterectomies — are finished in reference to genital reassignment surgical procedures reminiscent of phalloplasty and metoidioplasty. 

To qualify for the process at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital, sufferers should be 18 or older and have a letter from a medical physician stating they’ve “persistent, well-documented, gender dysphoria,” per the hospital’s web site.

The hospital additionally requires a letter from a psychological well being supplier stating sufferers are prepared for the surgical procedure and totally perceive the “process and restoration wants, fertility implications of surgical procedure, and dangers of surgical procedure.”

Our ruling

A tweet mentioned, “Boston Youngsters’s Hospital is now providing ‘gender-affirming hysterectomies’ for younger ladies.”

That is mistaken. The Heart for Gender Surgical procedure at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital doesn’t present hysterectomies to sufferers youthful than 18. Hysterectomies are a requirement for sufferers looking for gender-affirming surgical procedure reminiscent of phalloplasty or ​​metoidioplasty. 

To qualify for the process at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital, sufferers should additionally present a letter from a medical physician stating they’ve “persistent, well-documented, gender dysphoria.” 

We fee this declare False.