Brazil bans hormone blockers for gender transition in children and adolescents
Toriann Ellis / Our Today
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The Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) approved a resolution that bans the use of hormone blockers for gender transition in children and adolescents.
The announcement was made on Tuesday. The CFM has also raised the minimum age from 18 to 21 for undergoing gender transition surgeries that have a sterilising effect—that is, which affect reproductive capacity.
The ban on prescribing hormone blockers does not apply to cases of early puberty or other endocrine disorders, only to those involving minors who wish to transition.
The resolution also increases the minimum age from 16 to 18 to begin cross-sex hormone therapy—the administration of sex hormones for feminisation or masculinisation, according to the person’s gender identity.
In the case of gender reassignment surgeries, the minimum age remains 18, except for those with a potential sterilising effect, for which the minimum age is now 21.
To support the change, the CFM cited a law passed in 2022 that lowered the minimum age for undergoing tubal ligation or vasectomy in Brazil from 25 to 21.
The resolution adds to others by the council that have been criticized for their conservatism. In April of last year, the body approved a text that prohibited doctors from performing assistolia, a procedure that causes fetal death, in pregnancies over 22 weeks resulting from rape.
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