DENVER — More medical services for trans and non-binary people will soon be available in the Mile High City. By the end of the summer, full female-to-male gender confirmation surgery will be offered at Denver Health Medical Center. The expansion is making the hospital even more of a destination spot for the LGBTQ community.
Denver Health has been offering various kinds of gender confirmation surgeries for about a year. The hospital has completed more than 100 surgeries so far, according to LGBTQ Center of Excellence administrative director Kari Kuka.
Denver Health is currently one of the only places in Colorado where trans and non-binary people can receive lower-body gender confirmation surgery.
“We’ve got a quite robust waitlist for multiple surgeries,” she said.
Kuka spearheaded the creation of the LGBTQ Center of Excellence in 2017 — offering a network of more than 90 providers who are open and affirming to the LGBTQ community.
“Denver Health is here to care for the whole person, and there’s so much that we offer besides surgery,” Kuka explained.
The center also focuses on psychological, emotional and overall health and well-being.
On the surgery front, doctors will soon be trained for something new at Denver Health: female-to-male lower reassignment surgery. Starting in August, Denver Health will be able to offer almost any surgery relating to sex reassignment. Just about anything from breast augmentation and tracheal shaves to the lower procedures will be offered.
“Right now, we have over 300 patients waiting for our vaginoplasty procedure, and we have over 100 patients waiting for chest reconstruction,” Kuka said.
The LGBTQ Center of Excellence goes beyond the surgeries. Currently, the center is training more than 7,000 people to make Denver Health and its clinics even more open and affirming.