“Politics Is Interfering Where It Should Not”: Healthcare Professionals’ Responses to Brazil’s New Regulation of Gender-Affirming Care

Abstract Introduction Gender-affirming care for transgender children and adolescents has become increasingly contested following recent regulatory changes. Although public and regulatory debates have largely focused on medical interventions, less is known about how healthcare professionals understand and enact care within changing regulatory contexts. This study explored professionals’ perspectives on gender-affirming care, transition, and the implications of Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine Resolution No. 2,427/2025. Methods A qualitative study was conducted using four online focus groups, held between January and March 2026, with 15 multidisciplinary healthcare professionals involved in the care of transgender children and adolescents in Brazil. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis combining deductive and inductive approaches. Results Professionals described gender-affirming care as a longitudinal, relational, multidisciplinary, and intersectoral process extending beyond medical interventions to include family support, school collaboration, psychosocial care, and advocacy. Participants perceived the resolution as misaligned with this model of care and described divergent interpretations of its transitional provision, resulting in heterogeneous practices regarding treatment eligibility and continuity. They also reported increased legal involvement, psychosocial demands, regulatory uncertainty, and concerns about self-medication and unsupervised hormone use. Conclusions Professionals experienced the resolution not only as a restriction on medical interventions but as a disruption of a longitudinal model of care, with heterogeneous implementation across services and a shift of clinical work toward legal, psychosocial, and harm-reduction demands. Policy Implications Regulatory frameworks should recognize the multidimensional nature of gender-affirming care, provide clear implementation guidance, protect continuity of care, and incorporate the perspectives of healthcare professionals, transgender young people, and their families.