Brazil to fund sex-change operations

Brazil’s national health-care system will pay for sex-change operations following a decision by a regional federal court in Porto Alegre that the surgery falls within the constitution’s guarantee of access to medical care.

The court said transsexuality is “a sexual-identity disturbance where individuals need to change their sexual designation or face serious consequences in their lives, including intense suffering, mutilation and suicide.”

Candidates for the procedure will have to undergo psychological evaluation for two years and receive approval from a medical panel.
The government had argued it could not afford to offer the surgeries, but opted not to appeal the ruling.

A sex-reassignment operation costs approximately $1,000 in Brazil and could be sought by one in every 10,000 residents, the Ministry of Health said.