The Minister of Health, Alberto Martínez, admits in a communication sent to the Basque Parliament at the request of EH Bildu that in “certain documents” there are traces of the treatment of transsexuality as a pathology and that this material will be “revised” for its modification. Martínez denies in any case that professionals continue to use terminology such as “gender identity disorder” and indicates that the former vice minister, José Luis Quintas, had signed certain guidelines before the change of government for the correct application of new regional regulations. since the start of the year. The health guide for transsexuality is also being updated, Martínez points out.
The parliamentarian of EH Bildu, Ikoitz Arrese, had presented a battery of questions in light of the “complaints” of people in situation and transsexual groups concerning the functioning of the Gender Identity Unit of the Basque Health Service (Osakidetza ), located at the Cruces Hospital in Barakaldo. “Trans people should not suffer any form of pathologization, forced medicalization, pressure or discrimination,” Arrese stressed, citing not only the 2024 law but also previous agreements.
Martínez insists that “at the clinical care level” users are not pathologized. “A diagnosis of illness is not made because it is not considered as such,” he guarantees. However, “another problem is that the current ICD-10 coding contemplates a code with this literal meaning. [considerar a estas personas pacientes de un ”trastorno de identidad de género“] and may appear in certain documents derived from the attribution of this code,” he recognizes. This is why it is time to “reexamine the possibility of modifying and not using this coding in the care processes”, commits the health manager.
Santé indicates that “care is provided by a multidisciplinary team which evaluates and responds comprehensively to the needs of the person, as well as psychological support”. Martínez defends that the Cruces reference center “guarantees the quality and safety” of care for this group. “The professionals who make up this unit are all high-level experts in this care, both for children and adults. They are considered references in this area,” explains the head of Health at the Chamber.
Martínez also wants to “improve the surgical time of the most complex genital reassignment interventions”. This newspaper reported this summer that surgeries could take more than two years. From 2016 to 2024, 326 gender affirmation surgeries were performed in Cruces. There were 61 in 2021, the busiest year. The minimum was 20 in 2017. In 2024, until June, they reached 22. Osakidetza offers up to 49 types of surgery. The most common are breast resection, creation of felt genitals or mastectomies. According to official Health information, genital creations are the interventions with the longest waiting list. The average delay is 740 days for women and 617 days for men.
Also until June, 1,075 new people passed through the specialized unit in Cruces in the last eight years. There are 164 people from Alava, 592 from Biscay, 298 from Guipuzcoa and another 21 people from other unspecified localities. 53% received their first aid before reaching the age of majority. Many of them came before they were even 16 years old. 2021 was the year with the highest total attendance, 256. So far in 2024 there have been 68, again according to this data.
In August, and with the help of the ESK union, it was also reported that trans people were being forced to undergo psychiatric treatment. “I felt like a guinea pig in an experiment. The doctor assessed me as if she was looking for a psychological disorder that justified denying me treatment,” explained one of the people involved. In this regard, Martínez affirms that these consultations are not intended for a “diagnosis” but rather for “support”.
