A Spanish trans woman, Susana Domínguez, is suing the Spanish Public Health System after being wrongly diagnosed with "gender dysphoria" by her psychologist when she was only 15 years old. Months later, she underwent a sex change operation, having both breasts and her uterus removed and was given many male hormones without first being offered any form of psychiatric guidance.
The young woman, originally from Galicia (Spain), is now 24 years old and spoke to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, about her experience. During her conversation, Susana spoke about how she had received an incorrect diagnosis and that her transition treatment was carried out without any psychiatric supervision: "They ruined my life."
The Spaniard did not dare confront the psychologist who diagnosed her with "gender dysphoria" until three years ago, six years after her operation. During the talk, she tried to explain to him that he had made a mistake. However, the expert refused to admit it: "You cried and manipulated me. You manipulated me by crying, but I already knew that the sex change was not going to make you feel better."
The public health system did not notice her mental problems
The worst part, the young woman points out, is that no one realized the mental problems she suffered from, which included depression, a schizoid personality disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Neither the psychologist who recommended the transition, nor her first psychiatrist, who justified herself by assuring that the young woman always seemed "very sure" that she was trans:
I went to the first psychiatrist, the one who referred me to the psychologist, taking for granted that I was trans. Now, years later, she just says: 'Oh, but you were very sure, you were very sure'. I was 15 years old. How could they let me do that? How could she be sure of what she wanted?
Furthermore, she informed El Mundo, they didn´t do any type of family background check, if they had, they would have realized that she belonged to a family with a history of various psychological issues. She explained that six of her immediate family members - including her own mother and two brothers - have mental health issues. And the worst thing, her mother explains, is that it is an irreparable situation: "And now, what do we do? How do we fix this?," she asks.
Susana is taking hormones to become a woman again. Something that will not happen again naturally. For this reason, she and her mother are asking the Galician Public Health System for compensation for this erroneous diagnosis while assuring that every day, her life continues to be "horrible:"
Psychologists and psychiatrists have never helped me and I still have the same problems. The psychiatrist now says that I don't have any mental illness, that I can't be cured with pills, but she keeps prescribing pills and making standardized reports.
The Keira Bell precedent
In 2020 in the United Kingdom, Keira Bell was awarded compensation, legislative changes and the closure of the clinic where she had her sex changed following a complaint for false diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The judges ruled in favor of the 23-year-old trans woman, who sued the British National Health Service clinic for advising her and providing her with hormone treatments when she was 16 years old. Years later she regretted it and denounced the doctors who treated her for considering that they had rushed to assume that she was transsexual without carrying out a psychological evaluation.
