Vanderbilt University Medical Center Halts Gender-Affirming Surgeries

Apr 6, 2026

Vanderbilt University Medical Center stopped offering gender-affirming surgeries in February 2026, citing operational limitations and lack of surgical coverage, leaving Tennessee with no in-state options for such procedures. The decision followed VUMC's summer 2025 elimination of its LGBTQ Health Program and four-person staff, including provider Hayden Shafer who had served approximately 2,000 patients. Transgender patients now must travel to Atlanta or Chicago for surgeries requiring four to six weeks of recovery, while facing increasingly restrictive insurance coverage and state policies including hormone therapy bans for minors and proposed legislation requiring providers to report transgender patients' data to state health authorities. Trans Aid Nashville, which allocated $13,315 toward gender-affirming healthcare in 2025, saw monetary requests jump from 44 in 2023 to 165 in 2025, reflecting the growing crisis in healthcare access for Tennessee's transgender population.

Vanderbilt's cessation of gender-affirming surgeries and its impact on patients

▪Hayden Shafer estimated he served around 2,000 patients while at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
▪Hayden Shafer left Vanderbilt University Medical Center after the layoffs and elimination of the LGBTQ Health Program in summer 2025.
▪Vanderbilt University Medical Center cut its LGBTQ Health Program and its four person staff in summer 2025.
▪Vanderbilt University Medical Center will continue to provide nonsurgical gender-affirming care for adults 19 and up.
▪Vanderbilt University Medical Center stopped offering gender-affirming surgeries in February 2026.

Broader restrictions on transgender healthcare access in Tennessee

▪Federally qualified health centers like Neighborhood Health stopped offering hormone therapy in spring 2025.
▪Hormone therapy is restricted in Tennessee for patients under 18.
▪Tennessee HB 754 would require health care providers and insurance companies to submit transgender patients' data and treatments to the state department of health.

Community response and mutual aid efforts

▪Gender-affirming health care made up 26 percent of Trans Aid Nashville's total distributions in 2025.
▪Trans Aid Nashville allocated $13,315 toward gender-affirming health care in 2025.
▪Trans Aid Nashville answered 44 monetary requests in 2023.
▪Chosen Family Medicine serves around 2,200 patients.
▪Patients at Chosen Family Medicine wait up to two months to see Hayden Shafer for primary care.
▪80 percent of Trans Aid Nashville's funding came from individual donations in 2025.
▪Trans Aid Nashville was founded in 2023 to help trans residents with health care access, housing and economic stability.
▪Hayden Shafer joined Music City Physicians Group and works as an assistant medical director at Chosen Family Medicine.
▪More than 50 percent of Chosen Family Medicine's patients identify as transgender or gender-diverse.

Perspective of Transgender patients in Tennessee

▪Transgender patients under 18 in Tennessee cannot access hormone therapy due to state restrictions.

Perspective of Trans Aid Nashville

▪Trans Aid Nashville experienced a 275 percent increase in monetary assistance requests between 2023 and 2025.

Perspective of Tennessee General Assembly

▪Tennessee HB 754 would mandate healthcare providers and insurers report transgender patients' personal data and treatment information to state health authorities.