I can only imagine how long people have been on waiting lists to get this far, and then have their procedures cancelled. Best wishes to them and the surgeon.
Trans women in Massachusetts may be suffering the effects of the Trump administration’s campaign to erase transgender identity from American society, but their hospital won’t confirm or deny it.
Several trans women scheduled for vaginoplasties with a highly regarded doctor specializing in the gender-affirming procedure were informed over the last few weeks that their surgeries had been cancelled and they wouldn’t be able to reschedule them, WGBH reports.
UMass Memorial declined to provide a reason for the cancellations or say whether Alford’s patients would be referred to another doctor. But in a statement, the health system denied that it’s curtailing gender-affirming care.
Just got off the phone with patient advocates:
According to them they don’t really know anything either, they would tell me:
- Not an institutional decision to stop providing care
- Dr. Alford is alive and well
- No timeline on when or if appointments will be restored
I talked with PA again this morning (Feb 17) and they are now saying that Alford is on personal leave but that they don’t know when or if she will come back and claim that because it’s personal, they can’t comment further on the nature of it. They confirmed she’s still an employee and a credentialed surgeon. They also confirmed they’re actively discussing coordination and/or transition of care but that there’s no information at the moment.
I don’t want to over-speculate, but saying it’s personal leave allows them to still be ambiguous but create the appearance of progress. It’s maddening that it’s taken them 2 weeks to be able say anything besides “we don’t know”, and only after the GBH article was published. We deserve more transparency and to know the status of our access to care.
My surgery was also cancelled. Something happened that caused Dr. Alford to leave the clinic and cancel all her upcoming appointments with patients, including surgeries. It happened on Tuesday 1/27, and I know this because Dr. Alford herself messaged me that morning to confirm that my surgery would procede on 1/30 and that I should receive a call on 1/29 to tell me what time I should arrive for check in. But then, less than 7 hours later that afternoon, I was called by a staff member and told that my surgery was cancelled as Dr. Alford would not be there on my surgery date. I’ve called again more than once, but all I’ve been told is that Dr. Alford is out of the clinic for personal reasons that they cannot disclose and that they do not know when she will be returning.
It seems that something serious (but apparently not life-threatening?) must have happened to her or perhaps someone in her family and she is unable to return to her work at this time as a result. Until whatever the situation is has resolved, I suspect UMass will keep cancelling her upcoming appointments and surgeries as their dates near.
The fact that people are now having their surgeries cancelled more than two months in advance of their dates is more worrying to me though. My surgery was cancelled with less than 72 hours notice because Dr. Alford’s sudden absence started that same week. But if they’re now cancelling surgeries this far in advance, I’m worried Dr. Alford may not return to UMass even by this summer.
really looks like this is just a personal issue with the surgeon, and it’s probably sensitive / private, hence in the absence of clarification people can fill in the blank with their imagination; it’s a bit irresponsible of the journalists to publish this as a political issue tbh, that’s just not the context
even if not political, I think this does highlight how fragile trans healthcare is in this country, and how easily anti-trans activist could target & disrupt it
