Laboratory will pay R$10,000 to trans woman for denied prostate exam

Judge Glenda Borges, from the 4th Special Civil Court of Cuiabá, condemned a diagnostic testing laboratory for refusing to carry out prostate cancer screening tests on a transgender woman. The company was forced to pay R$10,000 in compensation for moral damages. The decision may be appealed.

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A transsexual woman went to the laboratory, with a medical recommendation and authorization from a health plan, to request a prostate exam, but the employees there informed that the electronic system only allowed the exam to be performed on male patients. The patient’s birth certificate had already been updated and the document stated that she was female. After obtaining an injunction from the Mato Grosso Court, the young woman returned to the location to take the exam.

The judge also condemned the laboratory for violating honor, especially because the company changed the sex of the young woman in the system to male, in order to be able to carry out the exam. The patient claims to have been humiliated during the treatment, but the laboratory says that the service was provided with respect and confidentiality upon the trans woman’s return to the unit.

Currently, there is a resolution from the Federal Council of Medicine that deals with specific care for people with gender incongruence or transgender. The document reinforces that “all their needs must be addressed, guaranteeing access, without any type of discrimination, to basic, specialized and urgent and emergency care”.