Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment Surgery in Italy

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the first efforts of systematically collecting national data regarding the prevalence of transsexualism and sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in Italy. The Italian Ministry of Health and the clinics offering such treatment were asked to cooperate by providing their data. Various problems were encountered in data collection, mainly due to the missing standardization of the record procedures in the clinics. The number of persons who underwent SRS, their age, nationality, the type of surgery and the sex ratio are reported. The resulting prevalence, lower than in other countries, suggests that the data is not complete. A standardization of the record procedures would make accessible full data and allow a reliable evaluation of the prevalence of transsexualism in Italy.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender dysphoria
• prevalence
• sex reassignment surgery
• transgenderism
• transsexualism

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report was possible only thanks to the cooperation of the professionals working in the clinics supplying the data and of the Department of Statistics of the Information System of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs Department of Health. A special mention is for Dott. Andrea Tamagnone.

Angela Caldarera holds an MA in clinical and community psychology. At the time when research for this article was conducted, she was affiliated with the Department of Forensic Psychotherapy, University Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, at Ulm University in Ulm, Germany. She is currently affiliated with the Department of Psychology at Turin University in Turin, Italy, and the Dynamic Psychology Laboratory led by Prof. Piera Brustia. Friedemann Pfäfflin is a professor emeritus and doctor of medicine at Ulm University in Ulm, Germany, where he was the director of the Department of Forensic Psychotherapy and the codirector of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy. He is a past president of The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. (HBIGDA) and, together with Eli Coleman, the founder of the International Journal of Transgenderism.

Notes

^bCentro per la diagnosi e la cura per i disturbi di identità di genere.

^cIn Torino SRS surgery is performed in Ospedale Le Molinette since March 2005, while previously it was in Mauriziano.

^dCentro Interdipartimentale Disturbi Identità di Genere.

^aData until March 2007.

^bData from 1994 to 2003, hoarded in the field “total,” is mentioned in Trombetta et al. 2004.

^cThe number is obtained by adding to the total the 98 vaginoplasties performed in Trieste.

^aOnly the data mentioned in Trombetta et al. 2002 were entered in this table.

***Incomplete data. See text.