First detransition clinic in the US opens at Texas Children’s Hospital after $10 million settlement

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday that the nation’s first detransition clinic has opened at Texas Children’s Hospital. The clinic opened following a $10 million settlement with the state.

According to Paxton’s office, the settlement with the hospital was reached in May and finalized in August. Under it, the hospital had to pay $10 million to resolve government claims and separately establish and fund a detransition clinic.

The new clinic provides detransition-related medical care to patients through age 21. Detransition-related obstetric and gynecologic care for patients older than 21 is also available there, Paxton’s office said.

In a statement, Paxton said that in accordance with his settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s first detransition clinic is now open, and that he will continue to ensure the clinic provides the care and support patients deserve.

A Texas Children’s Hospital spokesperson said on Wednesday that patients and families are at the center of everything the hospital does and that it will provide the highest standard of care, including through this clinic. According to the spokesperson, the clinic formalizes the supportive, multidisciplinary services the hospital has delivered and will continue to deliver.

The spokesperson said that because of the multidisciplinary approach, care may be delivered in multiple locations depending on individual patient needs, and all services will be within the hospital’s existing licensure and scope. Services at the clinic will include endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, psychology, social work and case management, and speech pathology.

The hospital spokesperson also said the clinic is operational and the hospital is complying with all requirements of the settlement agreement. Prospective patients are being triaged through its established intake process, but there have not yet been clinical appointments with patients. Protecting the privacy of patients and families is a top priority, so patient information cannot be shared, the spokesperson added.

Under the settlement, Texas Children’s Hospital must fully fund the clinic’s services for its first five years, so patients receive those services at no cost. The hospital must also publicize the clinic on its website.

The May settlement also required the $10 million payment to resolve claims brought under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act and the federal False Claims Act over allegations that the hospital improperly billed Texas Medicaid for gender-transition treatments, according to Paxton’s office.

Do No Harm, a medical advocacy organization critical of gender-transition treatments for minors, estimates, based on its analysis of insurance claims data, that 13,994 minors received gender-transition-related medical interventions between 2019 and 2023.

Paxton is currently running in Texas’ 2026 Senate race. President Donald Trump campaigned on Tuesday in two Texas cities, Corpus Christi and Lubbock, to boost Paxton’s bid. The Trump administration has meanwhile been targeting transgender-related initiatives in recent months; in August Trump announced his administration would cease providing Medicaid funding for gender transition surgeries for minors.