Transgender “Children” and “Adolescents”. Categories construction among health professionals

Abstract

This article describes and discusses the meanings and conceptions attributed by a group of health professionals to the categories trans "children" and "adolescents" and their relationship with the care practices performed by these professionals, prioritizing a socio-cultural approach of care. It is based on an ethnographic approach to in-depth interviews with health professionals who work or have worked in specialized services in the care of trans children and adolescents and their families, located in the State of São Paulo. The results show how the professionals definitions overlap biomedical criteria and socio-cultural conceptions of gender, revealing impasses and controversies involved in the diagnostic evaluation of the gender identity of children and adolescents in terms of fixity and permanence.