Access to healthcare for transgender adolescents: the current situation and challenges in Chile and Portugal

Abstract

As a result of family rejection, harassment and social exclusion, transgender adolescents are prone to suffering from symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and even suicidal ideation. In gender binary and heteronormative social contexts, as in Chile and Portugal, such adolescents may feel pressured to conform to dominant gender normativities, seeking to align their bodies according to the socially imposed ideals of female and male. Although Chile and Portugal have advanced in the legal recognition of self-determination of gender identity in recent years, they have also encountered problems in implementing health policies aimed at the adolescent transgender population, which would thereby imply a failure to guarantee the fundamental right to health.