A database of transgender-related treatments given to kids in Wyoming from 2019 to 2023 shows more treatments coming out of a Jackson-based hospital than all other hospitals in the state combined.
It also says Wyoming hospitals have given fewer transgender-related treatments to kids than any other state in the U.S.
The Stop the Harm Database, released this month, is a national database by Do No Harm, a group of medical professionals that opposes administering transgender-related treatments to kids.
The report was sourced from an all-payer claims database incorporating data from insurance claims clearinghouses, data aggregators, payors, health systems, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other open data sources, according to the database’s methodology white paper.
From 2019 to 2020, Wyoming medical providers prescribed at least eight kids with cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, the database says. They wrote at least 30 prescriptions and submitted $2,574 in charges to insurance providers, it adds.
Four of those patients, 18 of those prescriptions and $1,352 of those charges came through St. John’s Health in Jackson, the report says.
Data concerning Campbell County Memorial Hospital in Gillette show one pediatric sex-change patient, six prescriptions and $504 in submitted charges.
The data surrounding Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper show also one patient, plus three prescriptions written and $472 in claimed charges.
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, West Campus, had two patients, three prescriptions and $247, according to the database.
The hospitals did not confirm or deny the data when contacted by Cowboy State Daily.
“Due to patient privacy laws, Banner is unable to discuss this data,” wrote a Banner Wyoming spokeswoman in a Monday email to Cowboy State Daily.
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s spokeswoman returned Cowboy State Daily’s call and left a voicemail, but could not be reached Monday upon two calls back.
The other two hospitals did not respond by publication time to voicemail requests for comment.
‘Don’t Buy It’
Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who this year proposed Senate File 99, a ban on child sex-change treatments that went into effect July 1, told Cowboy State Daily that he doesn’t believe the Wyoming numbers are that low.
“I just don’t buy it, man,” said Bouchard. “I don’t buy the low numbers.”
Bouchard said a parent approached him saying her child had been sent to the hospital in Casper for transgender-related treatment.
“What, so that’s the only one (sent there)? Oh I doubt it,” he said.
He pondered whether providers can log claims under “mental health” instead of gender transition, and pointed to a page on Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s website that encourages prospective patients to consult with their doctors, school counselors or trusted teachers, therapists or LGBTQ clubs about their gender identity.
The Stop The Harm white paper indicates that its tallies may be low. The analysis focused exclusively on patients ages 0 to 17.5 years and included only confirmed cases of gender transition-related treatments, “eliminating any ambiguities or ‘gray areas,’” the white paper says.
Wyoming’s total is miniscule compared to California, for which the database logged 2,065 minor patients from 2019-2023. That includes 1,359 reported surgeries, 766 hormone and puberty blocker patients, 5,391 prescriptions and $28.9 million in submitted charges.
The second-lowest state after Wyoming was Mississippi, which also showed eight minor patients, including one surgery patient, seven hormone or puberty blocker patients, 41 prescriptions issued and $3,229 in charges submitted.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
