The HAS strengthens support for gender transitions in adults, without taking a position on minors.

Paul Sugy – Le Figaro – July 18, 2025

https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/la-has-renforce-la-prise-en-charge-des-transitions-de-genre-des-adultes-sans-se-prononcer-sur-les-mineurs-20250718?utm_source=app&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=android_Figaro

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Since no English equivalents were provided for “HAS” or the implicated institutions, I’ve left their names untranslated for clarity.

The Haute Autorité de Santé has unveiled its recommendations aiming to “ensure safe and high‑quality care” for adult gender transition requests, while leaving aside the issue of minors due to lack of scientific consensus on the subject.

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The Haute Autorité de Santé released its final recommendations this Friday regarding medical management of gender transition in adults. It had been commissioned on this matter by Olivier Véran during his tenure as Minister of Health. This project, which had fallen behind schedule, led to the drafting of a working document revealed by Le Figaro at the end of 2024: these provisional recommendations contemplated encouraging compliance with gender transition requests for everyone, starting from age 16. Ultimately, the HAS announced that it has decided not to issue recommendations for minors, whose cases are, for the time being, set aside and deferred to later work, due to the absence of “consensus” among researchers, according to HAS President Lionel Collet.

Therefore, only adults are currently the subject of detailed recommendations, intended to standardize the care of those requesting gender transition. These guidelines, addressed to healthcare staff, aim to “guarantee safe and high‑quality care.”

Lionel Collet stated at the outset that “gender incongruence” is no longer considered a mental disorder in France, and that gender transition care is already covered by health insurance, on the grounds that gender incongruence is classified as a “long‑term condition.” Whether these treatments are reimbursed was not part of the questions posed to the HAS working group, he clarified. According to him, the decision to undergo gender transition belongs to each individual: “we have no right to decide on that decision,” he affirmed, but healthcare professionals must, in HAS’s view, support individuals throughout their transition journey.

HAS recommends addressing trans people by their chosen names and pronouns

Claire Compagnon, chair of the HAS committee responsible for the recommendations, argued that gender transition care is all the more a public health issue given that trans people “are at risk of avoiding care, self‑medicating, depression or anxiety disorders up to suicide,” due to “very heterogeneous access conditions across the territory” for gender transition. The HAS guidelines aim to strengthen the healthcare offer nationwide to reduce these inequalities and to better train all professionals concerned with these requests. Claire Compagnon also noted that trans people are more frequently affected by “mental disorders,” notably “neurodevelopmental disorders or the autism spectrum.”

Compared with the initial working document, HAS has now opened the door to prudential measures ensuring that individuals embarking on gender transition fully grasp the implications of the treatments they seek. Clinicians will, in particular, be able to “impose a reasonable reflection period” before any intervention—especially when the effects are irreversible, such as certain hormone therapies or gender‑affirming surgeries. “A systematic psychiatric evaluation is not recommended,” but “psychological support can be provided according to the individual’s needs,” Claire Compagnon elaborated.

HAS furthermore recommends placing the general practitioner at the center of the mechanism, to “receive any care request and coordinate management throughout the process.” It urges all healthcare providers to welcome trans people “without judgment or preconceived ideas,” and to use “the requested pronoun and name,” even when they do not correspond to the patients’ birth names or genders.

HAS also recommends responding to all trans individuals’ requests for surgery, while advising healthcare professionals to thoroughly inform patients about the risks involved and the irreversible effects of certain procedures.

HAS deplored “pressure” exerted upon its working group, following revelations in Le Figaro about the group’s composition, which was majority trans individuals, members of trans‑activist associations, or healthcare professionals who had publicly supported the claims of these associations.