If the Swedes Are Backing Down...

 Swedish Board of Health and Welfare:

– The National Board of Health therefore wishes to emphasize the importance of decision-makers in the health care regions acting for improvement in both issues, and that this needs to be done in the near future. Young people suffering from gender dysphoria need to be able to quickly get an investigation and be offered adequate care measures, based on health care assessments of health care needs. Good psychosocial care is fundamental, says Thomas Lindén, Head of the National Board of Health and Welfare.

The National Board of Health and Welfare has, among other things, the basis of SBU, the State Preparation for Medical and Social Evaluation, found that systematic documentation and follow-up of care are not sufficiently performed and that the scientific evidence is insufficient to assess the effects of puberty inhibition and gender-contrary hormone therapy in children and adolescents.

– The need for good clinical studies is clear from the knowledge gaps that SBU lists. Follow-up and evaluation was something we already emphasized in the knowledge support in 2015, and since then very little knowledge has been added. It is important that the health care regions work to ensure that systematic documentation and follow-up of care at national level is realized and for clinical studies to start, says Thomas Lindén....

There is also a recommendation regarding breast surgery ( surgical removal of breast tissue ). Like the hormonal treatments, the assessment is that such treatment should continue to be given within the framework of research, and that, pending a research study, it may be given in exceptional cases, according to the criteria contained in the knowledge support.