Boston Medical Center plans to become the first hospital in Massachusetts to offer gender reassignment surgery, reports The Boston Globe.

The hospital already provides hormone therapy, facial feminization, breast surgery, mental health services, and primary care for transgender patients. But there are only a few hospitals in the United States that perform the surgery needed for gender reassignment, according to the Globe. However, that is changing as transgender people become more accepted and insurance companies expand their coverage to include the procedure.

Boston Medical Center already has a waiting list of more than 100 people who wish to be evaluated for surgery. The hospital plans to offer male-to-female surgery this summer. Female-to-male surgery, which is more complex, may follow. Surgery candidates must have lived for 12 months or more as their new gender and must be at least 18 years old.


“The demand for care from the transgender community is significant and has not been met,’’ Dr. Joshua Safer, an endocrinologist and medical director of Boston Medical Center’s new Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, told the Globe. “It’s a community that has been neglected for years and years.’’

Read the full story in the Globe.