Health professionals facing gender identity law. Tensions between expert knowledge and integral care in Argentina

Abstract

This article addresses the reception of the Gender Identity Law by health professionals from the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. It analyzes a corpus of in-depth interviews with health professionals specialized in gender reaffirmation treatments from the fields of Surgery, Endocrinology and Mental Health. Argentina’s Gender Identity Law (26743/12) provides coverage within the Mandatory Medical Plan for surgical procedures and hormonal treatments whose aim is to align body to gender identity. Unlike the previous legal regime, it does not require a diagnostic or judicial authorization to access hormonal or surgical treatments for trans population. The article describes the transformation of discourses of health professionals regarding access to treatment and evaluation of results. The main conclusions establish that the approval of the Gender Identity Law allowed three mutations in discourses prevailing in the medical field: from diagnosis to follow-up; from protocol to customization; from risk minimization to cost-benefit calculation.