Posted
Update
Article written by
/2021/12/14/61b8b98e077d1_france-2.png)
In 1972, Sweden was the first country in the world to recognize transgender people and help them find a place in society. She decided this year to no longer grant hormonal treatments to adolescents, except in exceptional circumstances… Extract from the magazine “We, the Europeans” of October 27, 2022.
Angela Sämfjord is a recognized child psychiatrist who established one of Sweden’s clinics for transgender children. In 2018, she resigned after becoming aware of the excesses that had occurred in hospitals across the country and came to be alarmed at misdiagnoses. “When I worked there, we blocked the puberty of adolescent girls from the age of 12 with medication, although it is a complex diagnosis. I met many patients who came to consult for a gender transition who had other mental problems”she explains to the magazine “We the Europeans” (replay).
“A large number were autistic, 25%, says the scientist. I think Sweden got lost. We were faster than science. Even though the intention was to benefit our patients, medical treatment was given without sufficient evidence.” In 2019, the documentary The Trans Train, by journalist Carolina Jemsby, shocked the country. Its investigation reveals in particular the risks incurred by adolescents with hormonal treatments: “We were guinea pigs. They conducted experiments without scientific basis. Who does that in medicine?” says one of them.
“Many parents called transphobic”
The documentary filmmaker explains: “Giving these hormones to change sex increases the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and thrombosis.” For four years, she followed teenagers and transgender people who regret having changed sex. “There is nothing more we can do for my body. The surgery and all the rest is irreversible. I will never recover my voice. I will not recover my breasts, my organs. There is nothing more we can do”said one of them. The testimonies that Carolina Jemsby collected also revealed the pressures that the medical profession was able to exert on the parents of these adolescents.
“Many parents who objected to treatment for their child and asked to wait, were called transphobic, says the journalist. Clinics for transgender teens have gone so far as to report parents to social services saying, ‘Warning, we have a transgender child in this family and transphobic parents.’ And this, just because the parents wanted us to take the time before giving hormones or doing surgery to their child.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.