Gender-Affirming Medical Treatment for Minors: International Legal Responses to an Evolving Debate

Throughout the West, there has been a surge in clinical diagnoses among people aged under 18 of ‘gender dysphoria’ or ‘gender incongruence’. Those individuals have sought treatment for distress and/or impaired functioning associated with a discrepancy between their sex assigned at birth and their experienced and/or expressed gender identity. A principal medical model for treating minors who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria or gender incongruence is controversial. Described as ‘gender-affirming’ or ‘gender- affirmative’ ‘care’, it can entail puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and sometimes surgical procedures. This article examines various arguments posited in the evolving debate in medical and lay communities about this intervention, and then explores examples of the wide diversity and mutability of legal responses to it in different jurisdictions in the West. The article analyses key issues that are pertinent to developing laws regarding this area of medicine and matters that might be taken into account in doing so.