Maine children's hospital declines to explain gender transition services

PORTLAND, Maine (TND) — The gender clinic at Barbara Bush Children's Hospital in Maine says it "offer[s] treatment to children and their families from childhood through adolescence," including puberty blockers and menstrual suppression, but has declined to identify the minimum ages for children to receive those services.

A handout on the gender clinic's website indicates the treatments available to patients include menstrual suppression, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender surgery. When The National Desk reached out to the hospital to learn how old patients must be to receive those treatments, the hospital declined to comment.

The hospital's website also features detailed guides on "tucking," the act of pushing one's penis between their legs to make it appear as though it is no longer there, and chest "binding," the act of hiding one's breasts.

The hospital gained national attention this week when the popular conservative Twitter account "Libs of TikTok" tweeted about it, pointing to a story produced by WMTW-TV chronicling a transgender child whose family reached out to the hospital for help.

The story, which was produced in 2016, includes comment from gender clinic director Dr. Jerrold Olshan, who cites the need to reduce transgender suicide rates as the driving force behind his clinic's services.

"About one in four will attempt suicide. About half will consider suicide during adolescence. And so, our big goal, and what got me interested is, how do we help this population do better in the long run?" Dr. Olshan told WMTW-TV. "This isn't a choice in most individuals. This is probably biologically programmed.

A year later, Dr. Olshan said in a separate report that children younger than five could identify whether they are gender dysphoric.

The most common age is before five years of age for all those patients that they identify that they were quote gender dysphoric or transgender as children," Dr. Jerry Olshan told WCSH-TV.

Four states — Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, and Arizona — have passed policies limiting certain gender transition services for children.