Learn from the Swedes – smp.no

A series of critical TV shows led Swedes to change their views about medical treatment for children and young adults with gender dysphoria (the lack of correspondence between the body and a person’s experience with their gender).

From being one of the most liberal nations when it comes to offering hormone therapy and surgery to children and young adults who are struggling to adapt to their bodies, the Swedes have now suddenly turned into this question. What happened?

They decided that the first presentation would be psychological/psychological evaluation, implementation of observations over time and inclusion of the parents. additional; Treatment should be through exploratory therapy and psychosocial support.

This is set out in the new Swedish treatment guidelines as of February 2022. It fundamentally violates the recommendation from the World Health Organization (WPATH) (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) which has relied on nearly all guidelines in this area to date. Including the new Norwegian directives that came in 2020.

In Norwegian, emphasis is placed on confirming the patient’s perceived gender identity in order to achieve a match between the perceived gender identity and the physical body. This means that it is the physical body that must adapt to the person’s experience with their gender, and that hormone therapy and any surgery must be readily available.

The new Swedish practice also focuses on a person’s own experience with sex, but beyond by facilitating a therapeutic exploration of identity in a broad sense. The main arguments for the reorganization of Swedish practice are basic in the following three points:

• Lack of knowledge about the long-term consequences of medical treatment such as preventing puberty

• New knowledge that more people regret and want to return to their biological sex

• Uncertainty about the reason for the sharp increase in the desire to change sex among young people in recent years

The reorganization of practice in Sweden is also related to the fact that treatment is now based on a developmental psychological perspective. This means that they reject the idea that children have an innate internal gender identity. Speculations promoted by trans activists, without coverage in research-based knowledge, have had an impact in the field of therapy.

The new Swedish treatment guide is very important because it can also serve as a model for the presentation of treatment in this country. It represents a transformation that takes care of the health of children and young people on a completely different, radically higher and more justified level than the Norwegian level.

I hope the Norwegian health authorities can learn from the Swedes. Finland has previously tightened hormone therapy/surgery, and we are already seeing ripple effects in France and the UK.

As a psychologist with clinical experience in the field of children, I hope that in Norway we will also move into this important field. This means that our subject comes in the driver’s seat, rather than an ideology-governed treatment.

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