Young transgender people, sometimes as young as 14 years old, buy medicines online to be able to go into transition themselves. The waiting times for transgender treatment in the Netherlands are increasing so fast that a group feels compelled to start already.
Transgender people in the Netherlands often end up on long waiting lists if they want to make a transition. Sometimes the waiting period is more than three years. Only then does a medical process start in which someone can choose to fully or partially go into transition, for example by removing breasts, having a vagina or penis constructed or using hormones.
The long waiting times have major consequences, according to answers to questions from NOS Stories. More than 700 people completed a questionnaire about trans care; of them, almost 300 are on the waiting list themselves.
Their answers show that waiting leads to or exacerbates serious psychological problems. More than 90 percent say they have thought about suicide one or more times. More than a third made an attempt to do so, 14 percent even did so several times.
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