Vraag uit New Zealand

[Forumwatch]

Ingezonden Mededeling:

Hi, I am a viewer of your Dutch site for transsexuals and the transgendered, in New Zealand (Nieuw Zeeland). Unfortunately, I am not fluent in Dutch!

Therefore, I am emailing you, hoping that you can understand English, to ask you to post, on my behalf, an inquiry on your "algemeen" (general) forum, in Dutch. My inquiry is aimed at confirming a story about a recent incident in a surgical clinic in Amsterdam, which has been told to me by someone (a young person from Wales) whom I know, who was there as a patient who was surgically treated. What I want to know is:

(a) Are there any private surgical clinics in Amsterdam, or at least nearby in Noord-Holland Province, which perform castration operations, i.e. removal of testicles (orchidectomy or orchiectomy), ON DEMAND? If so, what are their names, addresses, websites, telephone numbers, and email addresses?

(b) Is it true that, in the Netherlands, one can obtain whatever medical or surgical treatment that one desires from the age of 14, WITHOUT permission/consent from either a parent or guardian or a Court? If this is not true, what is the minimum age for this, and how is this minimum age enforced? Do private medical clinics in the Netherlands ask for any proof of the ages of patients?

I thank you in advance for your early attention to posting my inquiry.

John White, New Zealand

[Jaimee]

Ingezonden Mededeling:

Hi, I am a viewer of your Dutch site for transsexuals and the transgendered, in New Zealand (Nieuw Zeeland). Unfortunately, I am not fluent in Dutch!

Therefore, I am emailing you, hoping that you can understand English, to ask you to post, on my behalf, an inquiry on your "algemeen" (general) forum, in Dutch. My inquiry is aimed at confirming a story about a recent incident in a surgical clinic in Amsterdam, which has been told to me by someone (a young person from Wales) whom I know, who was there as a patient who was surgically treated. What I want to know is:

(a) Are there any private surgical clinics in Amsterdam, or at least nearby in Noord-Holland Province, which perform castration operations, i.e. removal of testicles (orchidectomy or orchiectomy), ON DEMAND? If so, what are their names, addresses, websites, telephone numbers, and email addresses? I had my orchiectomy done in Antwerp, as far as I know there are no clinics in Amsterdam that perform such operations... Otherwhise I would have had my surgery done here.. As far as I know, orchiectomy operations without medical need are ALWAYS illegal in Europe; my operation done in Belgium was also ILLEGAL so I can not give you any addresses or telephone-numbers...

(b) Is it true that, in the Netherlands, one can obtain whatever medical or surgical treatment that one desires from the age of 14, WITHOUT permission/consent from either a parent or guardian or a Court? If this is not true, what is the minimum age for this, and how is this minimum age enforced? Do private medical clinics in the Netherlands ask for any proof of the ages of patients?It's not true that you can have any operation done here; not at all actually. Especially when you're under 18 because then you'll always need approval of a parent or caretaker. But when you're over 18, it depends on what kind of surgery you want. If it's cosmetic surgery then you can decide (and pay) for yourself but I don't think that the Netherlands differ in this then any other western country in the world. About SRS-operations; these operations are always done in a regular hospital such as the VU hospital, but many years of therapy and hormones are required before you can have this kind of operations..
I thank you in advance for your early attention to posting my inquiry.

John White, New Zealand

I hope that I have helped you out a little bit!

Kind regards,
Jamie
I