Oregon's Medicaid program now covers puberty-suppression drugs

Oregon Medicaid covers puberty-suppression drugs
(Image credit: Twitter/@NPRHealth)

A handful of states cover medical costs for transgender Medicaid recipients, but Oregon is the only one that uses Medicaid funds to help pre-transgender kids delay puberty. Temporarily suppressing puberty requires a shot of a drug called Lupron every three months, at a cost of about $7,500 per injection, but "people with gender dysphoria that did not receive treatment had a much higher rate of hospitalizations or ER visits or doctors visits for depression and anxiety, and they had a pretty significantly high suicide rate," Dr. Ariel Smits tells NPR.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.