Photo: Zereshk / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Texas Children's Hospital in Houston opened a detransition clinic on Monday, Oct. 26, as required by its settlement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Office of the Attorney General announced the opening on Oct. 27 and describes it as the nation's first such clinic. Dallas Express notes that the description comes from the attorney general's office.
The clinic
According to the attorney general's office:
- The clinic is multidisciplinary and provides medical care to patients who "previously underwent gender-transition interventions."
- It offers detransition-related medical care to patients through age 21, and detransition-related obstetric and gynecologic care to patients older than 21.
- Patients may receive services at different Texas Children's locations, depending on their needs.
- Texas Children's is required to fully fund the clinic's services for its first five years, so patients may receive care at no cost, and to promote the clinic on its website.
Dallas Express and Just the News report that the listed services include endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, psychology, social work and case management, and speech pathology. Dallas Express reports that an appointment request leads to a virtual triage visit, and that the settlement directs the hospital to offer a charitable giving option to fund free services after the five-year period.
The settlement
Attorney General Paxton announced the settlement in May. It was fully executed on Aug. 5, 2026, according to the attorney general's office. The claims were brought under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act over billing Texas Medicaid for what the office calls "unallowable and illegal 'gender-transition' interventions." The August release also cites the federal False Claims Act.
The settlement:
- Requires Texas Children's to pay $10 million to resolve the claims, with $8,576,000 going to the State of Texas.
- Required the clinic to open by the end of October 2026.
- Permanently terminates the privileges of multiple physicians. Dallas Express reports the agreement names five.
- Requires the hospital to amend its bylaws so that performing gender-transition interventions triggers automatic relinquishment of medical staff privileges.
Dallas Express reports that the agreement defines covered interventions to include hormone suppression, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomy, hysterectomy, and genital reconstruction, and that its compliance terms generally extend through June 30, 2032. Dallas Express reports that the settlement states the hospital and other released parties do not admit liability or wrongdoing.
The whistleblower
The case followed allegations by Vanessa Sivadge, a former registered nurse at Texas Children's. Dallas Express reports that $1.7152 million of the State's recovery is directed to her. Sivadge announced the clinic's opening on X on Oct. 26, writing, "I think of all the detransitioners who have suffered in silence, been dismissed, and fought desperately to have their voices heard. This win is for them," Just the News reported.
In the Oct. 27 release, Paxton said: "In accordance with my settlement with Texas Children's Hospital, the nation's first-ever Detransition Clinic is now open. I will continue to ensure that this clinic provides the care and support that victims of the radical left's gender ideology deserve. Together, we will protect our children and defeat the dangerous ideology that has inflicted irreversible harm on innocent kids."
Antecedentes
In 2023 the Legislature enacted Senate Bill 14. The Governor signed it on June 2, 2023, and it took effect on September 1, 2023. For a child younger than 18, a physician or health care provider may not knowingly perform specified surgeries, including sterilizing surgeries and mastectomy, provide puberty-blocking drugs to stop or delay normal puberty, or provide supraphysiologic doses of testosterone to females or of estrogen to males. The statute states those purposes as "transitioning a child's biological sex" or "affirming the child's perception of the child's sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex" (S.B. 14, enrolled).
On June 28, 2024, in State v. Loe, No. 23-0697, the Texas Supreme Court reversed and vacated a trial-court temporary injunction that had blocked enforcement of the law. The court concluded the plaintiffs had not shown a probable right to relief on their constitutional claims (opinion).
Sources: Texas Office of the Attorney General, Oct. 27, 2026 · Texas Office of the Attorney General, Aug. 5, 2026 · Dallas Express, Oct. 26, 2026 · Just the News, Oct. 26, 2026 · S.B. 14, enrolled · State v. Loe, No. 23-0697 (Tex. June 28, 2024)