The VA will deny gender dysphoria treatment to new patients

The Department of Veteran Affairs said that, effective immediately, it will no longer offer medical treatment for gender dysphoria to veterans who are not already receiving the treatment from the VA or the Department of Defense.

“If Veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a press release Monday announcing the new policy.

It is the latest in a series of actions the department has taken to strip recognition and services away from transgender veterans. The agency said it’s following the Trump administration’s executive order that says it’s now U.S. policy to “recognize two sexes, male and female,”

While the VA never offered gender-affirming surgery, it offered treatments like hormone therapy and prosthetics, as well as tools to help transgender veterans present as their gender identity.

The agency provides healthcare and benefits for about nine million veterans — VA estimates that fewer than 0.1% identify as trans.

“If as a country we tell ourselves that we want the very best for America’s veterans, this recent action by the VA flies in the face of that and makes one wonder if it’s one that VA physicians would agree with,” said Allison Jaslow, CEO of advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “Veterans have dealt with enough at the hands of politicians during our service, especially those of us who’ve served in wartime, we don’t need to continue to be beaten on as we’re just trying to live our lives post-service.”

Collins said the agency would continue to provide healthcare that’s not related to gender affirming care to transgender veterans, whom the release refers to as “trans-identifying.”

Last Friday, the agency scrapped a policy that had laid out the kind of care trans patients could receive at VA facilities, but also instructed healthcare providers to respect the patients’ pronouns and assign them rooms that matched their gender identity.

VA’s research shows that veterans who are sexual minorities — including LGBTQIA, non-binary, intersex and other veterans — are more likely than average veterans to take their own lives; that figure is higher for transgender veterans. Veterans have a higher average suicide rate than the general population.

The Pentagon has paused gender-affirming treatment for its service members and has been telling trans service members to come forward and leave the military by the end of March. Those policies are being contested in court.

NPR’s Quil Lawrence contributed reporting.