Trans teenager says Tampere clinic tried to deter him from transitioning

A teenager says staff at Tampere University Hospital’s gender identity clinic asked intrusive questions and tried to discourage him from pursuing transition-related treatment, Yle reports. The young man, who was 15 when he began the assessment, said the appointments were distressing.

He was assigned female at birth and identifies as a boy. During the assessment, he was asked questions including how he masturbated and whether he might be a lesbian. He said clinicians focused on the risks of treatment rather than believing what he said about himself.

His mother said a meeting with the clinic’s chief physician, Riittakerttu Kaltiala, felt more like a lecture than a discussion. She recalled Kaltiala saying that surgery could be performed but that “the penis will never work”.

The young man, who has recently turned 18, did not receive a hormone prescription, although he said staff did not question his transgender identity. He later obtained a prescription through an online clinic abroad. Yle says it has met the young man and his mother and seen his medical records. Their names have not been published because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

Social work professor Joa Hiitola of Tampere University has studied young people’s experiences of gender identity assessments in Helsinki and Tampere. In an article due to be published soon, she describes how interactions with health and social care professionals can feel intrusive and like an infringement of privacy. She said young people may feel unable to refuse questions, even when they find them too intimate.

Kaltiala, a professor of adolescent psychiatry who leads assessments of minors at Tampere University Hospital, declined to comment on an individual case. She said assessments can be difficult when people’s expectations are not met, and that questions about masturbation help clinicians evaluate sexual development, an important part of adolescent medicine.

The Tampere clinic drew public criticism earlier this year, including at a protest held during the Helsinki Pride parade. In August, the Finnish Medical Association organised a discussion with transgender organisations, where participants raised concerns that transgender people can experience healthcare as discriminatory, humiliating or aimed at changing their identity.