At the Careggi hospital in Florence they no longer prescribe triptorelin, the drug that blocks puberty, to children who suffer from gender dysphoria and who in most cases have just started puberty. Careggi is the main hospital in Italy that administers this highly contested drug. Patients are as young as nine or ten years old. Injecting triptorelin prevents the sexual organs from developing. In the Careggi hospital department that deals with dysphoria and gender incongruence, this drug was given without respecting the AIFA recommendations for use on minors (which require, for its administration, psychological, psychotherapeutic and psychiatric and a diagnosis confirmed by a multidisciplinary team where the figure of the child neuropsychiatrist is central). Now the blocking of prescriptions.
A measure that concerns new accesses, not small patients who had already started this practice before the inspectors of the Ministry of Health highlighted the serious shortcomings of the work of the department at Careggi. There was no psychotherapy given to the kids who presented themselves before the psychologist who instead asked them directly to establish their gender identity. That is, he asked them directly how they perceived themselves, whether male or female. To then proceed with the administration of the drug.
Not even a neuropsychiatric evaluation was done, but this was known given that the child neuropsychiatry department does not exist at Careggi. And now it is precisely this absence that has pushed the hospital to suspend Triptorelin prescriptions. The absence of the figure of the child neuropsychiatristand it was in fact the one that Minister Orazio Schillaci’s inspectors highlighted as a priority.
The ministry inspectors went to the Careggi department on 23 and 24 January, following a parliamentary question by Maurizio Gasparri (Forza Italia). The inspection was followed by painstaking work which produced a substantial report delivered to Careggi, who will now have to try to remedy the various critical issues. In the meantime the Florence Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the hospital following two complaints presented by Annamaria Bernardini de Pace.
