Ivy Hill, an activist with the Campaign for Southern Equality, speaks during a rally opposing a bill banning certain procedures and treatments for transgender youth Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Hill said their group would consider suing the state if the bill passes into law. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — When Dylan Sutherland, a transgender man, learned he would lose access to his hormonal treatments through the Medical University of South Carolina’s health system, he knew he couldn’t wait until his prescription ran out to find another doctor.
The first few health care providers he called had no openings. The 27-year-old from Mount Pleasant eventually got an appointment at Roper Hospital, but he worries not everyone will have the same luck in finding a new doctor.
“It’s been quite difficult to swallow,” Sutherland told the SC Daily Gazette on Friday, adding he’s yet to hear from his MUSC doctor.
After the Medical University of South Carolina confirmed Wednesday to the Gazette that its health system would no longer offer “gender transition procedures” to anyone, regardless of age, LGBTQ advocacy organizations are anticipating an influx of people like Sutherland, who are losing their doctor and need to find someone else.
North Carolina-based nonprofit Campaign for Southern Equality, working with local advocacy organizations, has some funding available to cover initial appointments in addition to helping people find doctors with open appointments.
MUSC pointed to a law that went into effect in May as the reason behind its decision. While the law’s primary focus was banning the treatments for children, it included a sentence that prohibited the use of public funds “directly or indirectly for gender transition procedures.”
Because MUSC receives public funds, it decided to stop offering the treatments entirely, Dr. Patrick Cawley, MUSC’s chief executive officer, said in a statement Wednesday.
MUSC to stop providing gender transition treatments to adults
The hospital system did not answer questions about how many people would be affected, when it would stop providing these services, exactly what services it would stop providing, or when officials made this decision.
Patients won’t be let go immediately.
Anyone who’s a patient as of Aug. 1 will be phased off their gender-transition medications. The systematic reduction must end by Jan. 31, 2025. But “given the limitations of this law,” doctors are encouraged to “transition the patient” to another provider as soon as possible, according to a three-page list of frequently asked questions and answers sent to MUSC doctors and obtained by the SC Daily Gazette.
MUSC is leaving the specifics, to include patient notification, up to each provider.
“MUSC honors the patient-centered care model,” the hospital system said in a statement sent Friday to the Gazette.
“We chose to have our providers reach out directly to the patients affected by this law,” it continued. “They would be better positioned to answer their patients’ questions or concerns.”
House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, the law’s main sponsor, said the law’s sentence on public funds was meant to ban the state health plan from paying for gender-transition treatments. Hiott praised MUSC for extending it to all patients, even if that wasn’t his intent.
Chase Glenn, director of LGBTQ nonprofit Alliance For Full Acceptance Action, estimates several hundred patients will need to find other options for treatment.
“It’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Glenn said.
Anyone who is losing coverage, including parents of children affected by the new law, can fill out a form on the Campaign for Southern Equality’s website about their situation.
The nonprofit will connect them with a doctor who offers the treatment they need, while taking into considering things like whether the practice accepts a person’s insurance, said Adam Polaski, spokesman for the Campaign for Southern Equality.
People worried about how they’ll afford their medication can ask for a patient care fund to cover the cost of their first visit to doctors who have agreed to use that form of funding. That includes public employees across South Carolina covered by the state health plan.
There’s no cap on how many people can ask for financial help. The funding, which comes from private donations, should hold up even with an influx of patients, Polaski said.
“The project was really built to be a bridge for such a situation,” he said. “We were sort of bracing ourselves for this to happen.”
The nonprofit also offers $500 grants for families of children who are losing access to care, which can cover the cost of traveling to a doctor in a different state. So far, more than a dozen South Carolina families have requested those grants, Polaski said.
The funding piece can be essential, Sutherland said.
As an employee of MUSC, he gets his insurance through the state health plan. Under his insurance, he was paying around $10 each month for his testosterone. He expects that to go up to as much as $100 per month out of pocket.
“Not that that’s an incredible increase, but it’s still an increase in an economy that is completely awful,” Sutherland said.
But going without would be worse, he said.
Quitting treatments can take a toll mentally on a person if their body no longer aligns with their identity, he said.
On top of that, stopping hormonal treatments can cause withdrawal symptoms. Sutherland had to stop hormone replacement therapy briefly last year for medical reasons and had headaches so bad he couldn’t focus, he said.
“I’m terrified of, if I had to quit cold turkey, how would I feel?” Sutherland said. “Would I even be able to function?”
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