Minnesota Children’s Hospital Offers To Discuss ‘Gender Identity’ Alone With 11-Year-Olds

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SARAH WEAVER - SOCIAL ISSUES REPORTER August 11, 2023 6:37 PM ET

Staff members at Children’s Minnesota, a children’s hospital in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, are willing to meet individually with children over the age of 10, according to the facility’s website.

Children’s Minnesota launched its “Gender Health Program” in 2019 with the goal of becoming the “go-to resource for transgender and gender-diverse children from across the region,” program director Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd said at the time. The clinic’s services include meetings with a “gender-health expert” to discuss “gender identity;” and “pubertal suppression,” which the hospital describes as “fully reversible.”

Some medical professionals have warned blocking puberty can put gender dysphoric kids who might otherwise desist on a path to further medical interventions, such as hormones and surgery. Some patients suffer permanent loss of bone density and fractures later in life after taking the drug. (RELATED: ‘Non-Judgmental And Affirming’: Gender Clinic’s Services For Kids Include Transgender Hormone Therapy)

The clinic said it would also provide cross-sex hormones to patients in “late puberty or post puberty,” as well as “fertility preservation consultations.”

The first appointment the clinic provides to kids who experience gender dysphoria is a consultation with a mental health professional to discuss the child’s “gender identity and goals.”

“For patients over age 10, we offer an opportunity to meet individually with the provider,” the hospital’s website reads.




The clinic also offers to meet individually with 11-year-olds to discuss “possible treatment options,” including puberty blockers or hormones. Around the ages of 15 or 16, the possibility of taking cross-sex hormones is discussed, according to the hospital’s website. A letter of support from a mental health professional is required to begin taking hormones, and referrals for surgery are offered “as you get older,” the hospital notes.

Dr. Angela Goepferd serves as medical director for the hospital’s gender clinic. Goepferd once gave a TED Talk on “The revolutionary truth about kids and gender identity” and goes by “she/they” pronouns, according to her bio. In the TED Talk, Goepferd recalls telling a boy at a daycare facility where her own child stayed that she was a “Mapa,” which is like “a mommy and a daddy — both.”

“When our kids were growing up we tried to expand their gender categories, just a little bit,” Goepferd says in the TED Talk. “So instead of saying to them, ‘These are boy parts, there are girl parts,’ we taught them that most boys have penises, and most girls have vaginas. Just so that we open the possibility that biology isn’t destiny, and that how someone feels inside, or their gender identity, may not align with expectations based on anatomy. They actually adapted quite quickly to this.”

The Children’s Minnesota hospital system in May gave Democratic Minnesota Rep. Leigh Finke an award for a bill designed to promote child sex changes. Finke’s bill prevented the enforcement of out-of-state legislation against irreversible transgender treatments on minors, such as puberty blockers or hormones. Goepferd testified in favor of Finke’s bill.

Children’s Minnesota did not respond to the Daily Caller’s repeated requests for comment regarding this report.

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Children’s Minnesota launches multidisciplinary Gender Health Program for transgender and gender-diverse youth

MINNEAPOLIS – (April 2, 2019) – Children’s Minnesota announced today that it is launching an exclusively pediatric, multidisciplinary Gender Health Program that will provide comprehensive care for youth who identify as transgender or gender-diverse. Children’s joins only about a dozen hospitals in the nation with a program dedicated to providing specialized care and support for youth and their families.

“Our goal is to become the go-to resource for transgender and gender-diverse children from across the region,” said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, medical director for the program and vice chief of staff. “Often, families find themselves having to educate their primary care pediatricians, schools, neighbors and family members about how to appropriately care for gender-diverse children. At the Gender Health Program, families can access medical experts they can trust and get the answers they need to help them navigate the complexities they may encounter.”

Children’s is committed to providing equitable, inclusive care to all patients. Yet, despite healthcare industry efforts in recent years to address health disparities, there are still communities experiencing inequities and need additional help, including transgender youth. Through this comprehensive program, Children’s will offer compassionate and personalized care, including a variety of services that will support transgender and gender-diverse youth in their health and development.

“The launch of the Gender Health Program at Children’s Minnesota will help improve health equity and outcomes for children and families who need these services,” said Dr. Marc Gorelick, president and CEO of Children’s Minnesota. “We know that transgender and gender-diverse children face health disparities and our multidisciplinary clinic aims to offer a robust level of care to kids and their families.”
The multispecialty clinic will provide an array of services, including:

• Gender consultation: This involves meeting with a gender-health expert to discuss developmental questions and concerns about gender identity and develop a personalized care plan.
• Pubertal suppression: Treatment includes putting puberty “on pause” for kids in mid to late puberty. This is a fully reversible intervention, and is given as an injection or done as an implant
• Menstrual suppression: This involves medication, shots or implants to stop menstruation for patients as necessary.
• Gender-affirming hormone treatment: This involves hormones that create changes in the body to align with patient’s gender identity. The treatment is for patients in late puberty or post puberty.
• Fertility preservation consultation: This involves meeting with a fertility specialist to discuss options prior to starting gender affirming treatment.