Gender dysphoria, the go -ahead of the government at the bill on hormones and drugs: what changes

The Council of Ministers approved the bill governing the prescription of drugs for gender dysphoria. It is the result of the work of the technical table, established in May 2024 by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci and the Minister for the Family Eugenia Roccella, an organism made up of 29 experts called to clarify a delicate and complex theme.

The provision introduces More rigorous rules for the administration of blockers of puberty and masculinizing and feminizing hormones. Therapies will be allowed only after a detailed diagnosis drawn up by a multidisciplinary team and must be accompanied by the documentation of psychological, psychotherapeutic and, if necessary, also psychiatric paths. Everything will have to follow clinical protocols prepared by the Ministry of Health and informed consent expressed according to the methods provided for minors will be required.

The distribution of drugs will take place exclusively through hospital pharmacieswith requirements recorded in a national archive managed by AIFA. The latter will have to submit to the Ministry of Health a report every six months, containing data on diagnosis, clinical monitoring, follow -ups and any comorbilities. To check the system will be a new technical table, in charge of examining the AIFA reports and transmitting to Parliament, on a three -year basis, an overall report on the progress of the therapies.

The government’s decision has its roots in one case that had turned on the public debate: that ofCareggi Hospital in Florence. At the beginning of 2024after a question by Senator Maurizio Gasparri, the Ministry of Health had ordered an inspection on the use of puberty blockers in minors with gender dysphoria. The final report had reported several critical issues, in particular the absence of adequate psychological and neuropsychiatric accompaniment.

The National Committee for Bioethics had therefore been called to express itself and, last November, had recommended that clinical evaluations were always multidisciplinary, that The triptoreline was prescribed only after noting the ineffectiveness of a psychological or psychotherapeutic path, and possibly psychiatric, and that every step was carefully documented. From here, as stated in the illustrative report, “the need to regulate the matter was born, starting from the development of an adequate monitoring system”.

According to the AIFA estimates, in 2023 there were about 25 people treated in Italy with Triptorelina, even if the same agency warns that the data could be overestimated.

But there is no shortage of criticism. The president of Gaynet, Rosario Coco, he defined the provision “A strategy to slow down access to the triptoreline in every way and create an ideological filing of minors who undertake gender affirmation “.