UNC Health will no longer provide gender-affirming medical care to 18-year-olds

Kyle Ingram, The News & Observer on Jan 15, 2026

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RALEIGH, N.C. — UNC Health will no longer provide gender-affirming medical services to 18-year-old transgender patients, even though North Carolina’s ban applies only to minors.

Alan Wolf, a spokesperson for UNC Health, confirmed to The News & Observer that the organization decided last year to raise the age limit to 19.

“While state law limits these services to patients 18 and older, given the unsettled state of federal guidelines, last year we began limiting these services to individuals age 19 or older,” he said. “UNC Health remains committed to caring and treating all patients.”

Wolf said the new prohibitions apply to surgical and hormonal gender-affirming medical care.

Atrium Health instituted similar restrictions over the summer, NC Health News reported, with the group’s parent company citing the “evolving regulatory environment” for its decision.

The Trump administration has targeted the transgender community in a litany of executive orders related to sports, education and health care.

As part of one such order, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last month that it would propose new rules for Medicaid to “ensure that the U.S. government will not be in business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally inflict permanent harm on children.”

Those proposed rules include prohibiting the use of Children’s Health Insurance Program funds for gender-transition procedures on individuals under the age of 19.

The administration’s executive orders come after North Carolina lawmakers passed a series of laws targeting the transgender community in 2023, including a ban on puberty blockers, hormones and gender-transition surgeries for minors.

That bill, House Bill 808, specifically says it applies to minors “younger than 18 years of age.”

According to a 2024 study out of Harvard University, gender-affirming surgeries are very rarely performed on transgender minors.

The study’s lead author, Dannie Dai, said that the findings suggest “that legislation blocking gender-affirming care among (transgender) youth is not about protecting children, but is rooted in bias and stigma against (transgender) identities and seeks to address a perceived problem that does not actually exist.”