The Trump administration’s threats to defund facilities that treat trans minors is harming intersex youth who also need hormone therapy. “The federal government,” one mom said, “does not recognize, basically ” that kids like hers exist.

This article mentions suicidal ideation. If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or mental health please reach out to the Trevor Project a LGBT youth hotline Call: 1-866-488-7386  Text: START to 678-678.

The drive from western Wisconsin to see specialists in the Twin Cities and Rochester, Minnesota can be long. In the summer, it means braving sweltering weather and construction zones. In the winter, it means gripping icy roads and navigating unexpected snowstorms. It’s hard to afford—the gas gets expensive.

It’s a hassle. But it’s a hassle that Robin’s mom has been willing to shoulder, because it helps keep her kid alive. Robin, a pseudonym Rewire News Group is using to protect the teen’s identity, is intersex—an umbrella term for those who have naturally-occurring “differences in their sex traits or reproductive anatomy,” according to InterACT, an organization that advocates on behalf of intersex people. 

My child “has more of a reason to be confused or experiment with identity,” Robin’s mom told RNG in an interview. 

Robin’s medical care has been turned upside down by the federal government’s anti-trans agenda. She’s not the only one. 

Since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term in January 2025, his administration has escalated its attacks against trans people. Through a series of executive orders and federal regulations, the White House is working to deny trans people health care and erase their identities from the public sphere. The federal policies intended to limit gender-affirming care for trans children are having trickle-down effects on other forms of sex-related hormone care, advocates warn—including for intersex youth like Robin.

Optional surgery with lifelong consequences

Robin is one of an estimated 5 million people in the U.S. who are born intersex. Common intersex variations include androgen insensitivity syndrome, where an individual’s XY chromosomes don’t respond to testosterone and other androgen hormones, and they don’t have ovaries or uteri.

Another is congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which is a dysregulation of the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys and produce hormones. Turner syndrome, which happens when a person has a partial or full deletion of one of their two X chromosomes, may result in delays in physical development, fertility challenges,........

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