Trans: São Paulo has not resumed breast prosthesis surgeries – 01/29/2024 – Health

Since 2019, the state of São Paulo has not performed silicone breast implant surgeries for transgender people. According to the state health department, the procedure was no longer carried out due to the suspension of elective procedures due to the coronavirus pandemic and the service has not been resumed since then.

The organization states that there are negotiations to ensure that silicone breast plastic surgeries for transsexual people can be carried out again in the state, but there is no prediction of a return.

Data from the Ministry of Health obtained by Sheet via LAI (Access to Information Law) show that the state of São Paulo carried out, between 2014 and 2019, 19 bilateral reconstructive breast plastic surgeries including bilateral silicone breast implants in the transsexualization process. Since 2020, the state has not performed any surgery of this type.

The procedure has been provided for since 2013 in the set of services aimed at transgender people, called the transsexualization process, of the SUS (Unified Health System). Survey of Sheet showed that only 8 of the 27 units of the Federation have hospitals that offer sexual reassignment surgeries, which leads transgender men and women to leave their states to undergo the procedure.

The São Paulo State Health Department reported that, until 2019, the procedure was carried out by the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of USP (University of São Paulo). Elective procedures, however, were halted on site due to the pandemic.

In June 2023, more than 1 million surgical procedures of this type were stuck in the SUS queue throughout Brazil. In the state of São Paulo, joint efforts for orthopedic and heart surgeries were carried out, for example, in an attempt to eliminate the waiting list. The ministry states that the most urgent surgeries were prioritized.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, between 2014 and 2019, São Paulo was the second state that performed the most silicone breast plastic surgery procedures. In other states informed by the ministry, the number of silicone surgeries also fell from 2020. In Rio Grande Sul, 21 silicone breast plastic procedures were performed between 2014 and 2019. Between 2020 and 2023, the number decreased to seven.