Education

Berkeley Will Cover Fertility Preservation And Other Transgender Services

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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The University of California, Berkeley announced Monday that its student health insurance will cover hair electrolysis and fertility preservation, in addition to other services.

UC Berkeley already provides hormone therapy and counseling to transgender students.

“There are an infinite number of ways that someone can identify in regard to gender,” Laura Alie, chair of the school’s Transgender Care Team, told Berkeley News. “It’s our goal to make sure trans or gender-nonconforming students feel completely at home in the Tang Center, no matter what department they go to.”

Female-to-male top surgery costs $10,000-$12,000, whereas surgeries to create or fix a vagina or penis cost approximately $27,000 and $99,000, respectively, according to rough prices listed on the transgender vertical of UC Berkeley’s health services site.

“Remember, all students can use the [health center], whether you waive SHIP or not,” the school states on its health services page.

“Culture shapes our understanding of what we’re supposed to say, what we’re supposed to do, what we’re supposed to wear, how we’re supposed to take up space,” said Alie. “Everything related to gender is based in culture.”

UC Berkeley also recommends resources for parents of transgender children, featuring books like “The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes” and “Helping Your Transgender Teen: A guide for parents.”

The school increased its undergraduate student health insurance from $1,306 per semester to $1,415 per semester from the 2016-2017 to 2017-2018 school years but, in a conversation with The Daily Caller News Foundation, Roqua Montez, the school’s communication officer, explained that they were mostly not attributable to the additional transgender services.

“The cost of SHIP increases each year based on medical inflation and utilization/claims patterns,” said Montez. “The addition of fertility preservation and laser hair removal (which will be available to all patients with medical necessity e.g. students with ovarian cancer who may want fertility preservation prior to cancer treatment as well as to transgender patients) added less than 1% to the overall premium increase for undergraduates. Very few SHIP members have used the transgender surgery benefits (less than .2% of those that utilize the plan).”

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