14 comments

  1. Us trans people have it bad enough in Norway as is, accessing even the most basic of health care is a torturous process where many of us have to lie and bullshit to get anything, being a minor is even worse

    This doctor was one or your only options to get health care without having to wait years through the bullshit and gatekeeping

    This is but step one in what’s essentially genocide

  2. It is incredible that this doctor had their license taken away, especially considering how other doctors have been allowed to practice with far more serious complaints against them.

    One doctor in Flekkefjord faked his specialist license and performed horribly mangling surgery on a huge number of patients. People lost limbs and have developed debilitating nerve pain etc. He did not lose his license when complaints and law suits started to pile up – he was moved to a bigger hospital. Insane.

    Even though this is a whataboutism, nevertheless the treatment of Dr Pirelli Benestad seems incredibly harsh in comparison to such cases.

    They have been a strong voice for trans rights in Norway, and I suspect that their difference in political and professional opinion is the true explanation why they lost their license.

  3. Ah yes, losing your license because you failed to comply with what you where told to change/stop doing by the state is something worth demonstrating over.

  4. Since the people here don’t seem to realize the problem, here are some of the tweets made by the person who made the tweet and thread.

    (all of this is translated, expect mistakes)

    ​

    tweet 1:

    A long but grateful and informative thread:

    Yesterday’s demos across the country were strong, beautiful and heartbreaking. An incredible number of people are affected by the fact that Esben Esther lost her licence.

    ​

    tweet 2:

    First of all, I would like to thank everyone who threw themselves around and without hesitation put up their strength, knowledge and resources at the shortest notice I have come across. 7 demonstrations were coordinated and planned in 24 hours, and alternative plans were organized otherwise.

    ​

    tweet 3:

    I had people in my inbox in no time with offers and requests for help to get something done. Suddenly we had sign language interpreters, sound systems, well-being guards, appellants and much, much more. The queer movement and allies really went all out to show support for transgender people yesterday.

    ​

    tweet 4:

    And at least 800 people braved the cold at 5pm across the country. I am both touched and proud of the many people I have communicated with, and seen, over the past few days. It was really hard work, made easier by heart room 💜

    ​

    tweet 5:

    It is difficult to say anything specific about what lies in the National Health Inspectorate’s decision to revoke Benestad’s licence. I know many have questions. I think this is sad and a long career that absolutely should not have ended like this.

    ​

    tweet 6:

    My focus is on the patients who are left without services and the fight for a worthy health service. She’s going to complain, and we’ll have to see how it goes. The focus must primarily be on finding solutions for the hundreds who lost their offer,

    ​

    tweet 7:

    and then fix the broken healthcare provision for trans people. We must also work on damage reduction.

    The Norwegian Health Authority believes that Benestad must ensure that patients are followed up by their GPs or others. The Norwegian Health Authority is fully aware that this is largely an impossibility.

    ​

    tweet 8:

    We know of several people who have already received a “no” from their GPs to take over the treatment. I do not want Norway to be the country where self-medication and the purchase of hormones on the internet should prevail.

    ​

    tweet 9:

    The organisations’ focus is on the patients who are left without help, and the health service now. The work consists of helping people in crisis, damage reduction, centralizing information and disseminating it, as well as demanding a functioning treatment offer that provides dignified, individualized treatment.

    tweet 10:

    I can try to explain/pass on a bit about why some trans people and others do not seem to fully trust the decision of the National Health Service, and apparently dispute the National Health Service’s decision.

    ​

    tweet 11: “This without them necessarily having insight into the matter apart from what has come to light in the media. This is based on the conversations I have sat in, for those of you who may not understand the frustration.
    Briefly summarized:”

    ​

    tweet 12:
    EE lost its license over a couple of notifications from people who are not patients themselves, after having had the Norwegian Health Authority on their necks with a magnifying glass since at least 2008. Many have themselves been patients of EE and do not recognize the picture that the Norwegian Health Authority has painted of them (based on what has

    ​

    tweet 13 (continuation):

    appeared in the media). They have great faith in EE and several have been to both it and Rikshospitalet, and seen a significant difference in competence, dignity and treatment.
    At the same time: 90(!) patient complaints against Riksen, publicly exposed unethical research, hair-raising patient stories,”

    ​

    tweet 14 (continuation):
    testimony about “they are waging a professional fight on our child’s grave”, the spread of misinformation in the media and public rejection of the national guidelines, the Norwegian Health Authority has not addressed this.

    ​

    tweet 15:

    It looks strange to people, especially so soon after the sudden stop and fight for the Health Center for Gender and Sexuality. Trans people’s distrust of Riksen and all state health bodies and directorates comes from decades of degrading treatment and being a toss-up between ministries

    ​

    tweet 16 (continuation):

    A fraction of a thousand examples:

    “Do you think about your parents when you masturbate?”,

    “Can you get up and walk around a bit for me so I can see how feminine you walk?”,

    “You’re non-binary, we don’t deal with that here, come back when you’re sure of your identity”,

    ​

    tweet 17 (continuation):

    “But you don’t need your uterus anyway, because we’ve injected it with hormones, so we can just take it out!” (The latter claim turned out to be false)

    Trans people experience themselves as second-class citizens in the healthcare system, just by virtue of being different.

    ​

    tweet 18:

    People are afraid that it leads to bias in decisions, and it didn’t help, for example, when Rudi in the Norwegian Health Authority misgendered EE to the media.

    (This was in brief, but I hope it explains a little what people are thinking.)

    ​

    tweet 19:

    As I said, the complaint and the process around EE’s license must take its course, we who are volunteers, shop stewards or work on this, MUST focus on how to help those without services, and help the state to get an actually functioning health service for transgender people .

    ​

    tweet 20:

    We must help the state to recognize the application from Oslo Municipality to turn the Health Center for Gender and Sexuality into a National Center of Competence, so they can help the whole country!

    Decentralization is not going as it should.

    ​

    tweet 21:

    Rikshospitalet’s monopoly will be maintained if the arrow continues to point in the same direction as now. And we lose other options like flies. The situation for transgender people in Norway is unsustainable, and it must stop now.
    The battle continues.

    ​

    tweet 22:

    The 90 patient complaints are recent and all received less than three years ago

  5. Think its sad that so many people this does not impact are not able to listen to and accept the viewpoints of people in transition as fact and in turn empathize with them for what they are going through. I’m about as CIS white male as you can get and have it so easy because of it. Anyone in my shoes with a bit of compassion would stand up for those who do not have the same privilege.

    Might be able to help some without empathy….try taking this privilege test and then add to it being in the wrong body for you.

    [https://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you](https://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you)

  6. I didn’t have a therapist anymore because of this. Idfk what to do. The only thing good about 2022 was that I finally got hrt after so many years of struggle. Just to have them taken away a month into the new year (I do have medicine for a few months). I just feel like I wanna kms imo. Or move abroad; the problem being I don’t have any money atm. So idfk how the future will be, I guess I just wish for Benestad to get their license back. Riksen won’t give me hrt for years even if I went to them tomorrow. So I’m really dependent on my doctor being both nice to me and risking his license taken away to help me, which idk if he is willing to do. And many doctors certainly haven’t, so this decission is going to fuck the health system even more, overrunning *fastlegeordningen* and potentially have many young trans people coming into hospitals from now on, either from suicide attempts or getting sick from suddenly stopping hrt without replacement medicine (hemorhage, heart attack, veins being blocked etc). How are people literary viewing this, which won’t affect their lives whatsoever, as a good thing? I certainly hope they aren’t representative for this subreddit in any manner.

    Norway needs a better healthcare system. Every party in the parliament agree on that; but FrP, SP and KrF don’t think it should be much better basically (but still support stuffs like regionalization). We have had a need for real reforms for decades now imo. We got one big one in 2020 tbf and sterilization of transpeople stopped being a requirement in 2016. But we still have a very long way to go and it certainly doesn’t help that Riksen are doing shit like this and lobbying as fuck to stop any of this and get away with breaking the law. This is all a part of the war currently undergoing in the health system, like how Riksen and FHI tried to shut down Helsedirektoratet behind the Solberg’s government’s back during the pandemic, or how they both managed to shut down HKS (the other private hrt provider). That’s no conspiracy, that’s just facts and I feel like that gets no attention whatsoever in media. Like, it was literary Riksen and not like some local doctor or department etc who “sued?” Benestad, for some technical violation they forgot because of their recent cancer diagnosis, and even later fixed it. So this is literary a technicality of a technicality, whereas if this wasn’t a power struggle noone would give shit. Which we see daily in the health system, from bad surgeons, bad nurses, bad healthcare for elders or disabled, or Riksen itself.

  9. Every single operating doctor in Norway are able to follow the strict guidelines given by the government. Esben Esther was not able to do so, and the results of that is malpractice. The consequence of malpractice as a doctor is losing your license. This is not an attack on trans people, it’s an attack on a doctor that was not doing their job correctly.

  14. People are waiting for GP for 6 months- 1 year while paying tons of taxes, yeah we need better health care system for sure. But this issue is probably also in a way side effect of the bigger problem.

Leave a Reply