“Not all health places are trained or familiar with trans people. Many times (the patients) feel discriminated against or are afraid of mistreatment ”.
The clinic, a campaign promise from Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum
The clinic, a campaign promise from Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, has 32 workers. Of which 11 trans women and men with whom we seek to generate trust in users.
“Understanding from peers (…) breaks the paradigms of other spaces where they feel violated, excluded and discriminated against,” explains Oyuki Martínez, advisor to the health center and trans activist, 43 years old.
Nurse Karim Gutiérrez, who has felt discriminated against for being transgender, knows this well.
“We were wanted (hired) to be able to give this coat, to not see ourselves different (…), not to have this observation of what you are when we really are people,” says Gutiérrez, 38 years old and who changed his identity two ago.
These legal modifications are possible in the capital since 2014.
Short life expectancy
Housed in a two-story building in the center of the city, the clinic has two general practitioners and four specialists.
In six weeks of operation, it has received about 200 people, most of whom seek psychological attention to start hormonal treatments and change their sex.
At the moment, the service is focused on the population of the capital, but the objective is “to replicate it” in other states, says Martínez.
In addition to the difficulties in accessing health services and the risks of self-medicating and using synthetic substances, the trans community reports being victims of gender violence.
The life expectancy of a trans person in Mexico is barely 35 years,
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the life expectancy of a trans person in Mexico is barely 35 years, compared to 77 for the entire population. It’s not just “health problems, but violence,” says González.
By number of victims, Mexico is the second most lethal country for transsexuals after Brazil, according to the NGO Letter S and Transgender Europe.
During the first half of 2021, Letter S recorded the murder of 33 trans people, compared to 43 cases in all of 2020.
Eight of 32 states in Mexico allow changing gender identity, although only for those over 18 years of age. In Mexico City it is authorized from the age of 12.
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Regional Hospital Lic. Adolfo López Mateos; certified by the General Health Council