Texas Children’s Hospital opens nation’s first detransition clinic under Paxton settlement

Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S., has opened what Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton describes as the nation’s first dedicated detransition clinic, fulfilling a central requirement of a settlement announced in May. 

Paxton’s office announced the clinic’s launch Oct. 27, saying the multidisciplinary program provides medical care to patients who previously underwent gender “transition” interventions. 

The clinic offers detransition-related medical services to patients through age 21, along with related obstetric and gynecologic care for those older than 21. Patients may receive services at different Texas Children’s locations depending on their individual needs and care-team recommendations. 

The clinic stems from a settlement Paxton secured with the Houston-based hospital in May, as Zeale News previously reported. Under the agreement, Texas Children’s agreed to pay $10 million to resolve claims brought under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act and the federal False Claims Act. Those claims alleged the hospital improperly billed Texas Medicaid for illegal gender “transition” interventions.

>> Texas Children’s Hospital to create nation’s first clinic for detransitioners <<

For the clinic’s first five years, the hospital must fully fund its services, making care free of charge to eligible patients. The hospital must also promote the clinic on its website. 

“I will continue to ensure that this clinic provides the care and support that victims of the radical left’s gender ideology deserve,” Paxton said in his release announcing the clinic’s opening. “Together, we will protect our children and defeat the dangerous ideology that has inflicted irreversible harm on innocent kids.” 

Paxton is in a tight race for U.S. Senate against Democratic nominee James Talarico ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

The settlement followed a yearslong investigation led by Paxton’s Healthcare Program Enforcement Division. The probe began in 2023, around the time that Texas enacted its ban on medical interventions to “transition” minors. 

Texas Children’s has denied wrongdoing, saying in a statement cited by The Texas Tribune in May that the settlement allowed the hospital to end a legal dispute it described as “wrought with falsehoods and distractions.”

Vanessa Sivadge, a former hospital nurse who publicly alleged improper Medicaid billing, celebrated the clinic’s launch in a post on X. 

“I think of all the detransitioners who have suffered in silence, been dismissed, and fought desperately to have their voices heard,” she wrote. “This win is for them.”

In 2024, Sivadge accused the hospital of using false diagnoses to obtain Medicaid coverage for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. In congressional testimony in 2025, she said she discovered the alleged billing practices while handling medication refills and insurance approvals.

Chloe Cole — a detransitioner and activist who says she was prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones before undergoing a double mastectomy at age 15 — also praised the clinic’s opening in an Oct. 27 X post. 

“The future is looking bright for every child, man, and woman who has ever been lied to that they were born in the wrong body,” Cole wrote. “Detransitioners finally know where they can go for help and the long-term research that will come out of this will be invaluable.”