We've heard a lot about the Canadian healthcare system recently, mostly about their allowing euthanization, not just of the elderly but the autistic as well. We were surprised to hear that there was even a court battle over whether Canada would pay for a nonbinary person (a man) to have surgery to create a vagina … while keeping his penis.
Today we learned there are doctors who specialize in "non-standard gender procedures."
The National Post reports:
In a lengthy legal battle that could lead to more requests for individually customized and unorthodox gender-affirming surgeries, an Ontario resident is seeking publicly funded surgery to construct a vagina while preserving the penis.
The case, now before the courts, reflects a small but growing demand for niche surgeries for people who identify as non-binary, meaning neither exclusively female nor exclusively male.
As National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak first reported in September, the case involves 33-year-old K.S., as she is identified in court documents, who was born male but who identifies as female dominant and uses a feminine name.
Ontario’s Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) originally denied K.S.’s request in 2022 for funding for a penile sparing vaginoplasty, a procedure that isn’t available in Canada. The surgery was to be performed at the Crane Center for Transgender Surgery in Austin, Texas.
…
OHIP argued that, while it may be of medical benefit to K.S., a vaginoplasty without penectomy (removal of the penis) is considered an experimental procedure and isn’t listed as an insured service under its schedule of benefits.
K.S. could pay for the surgery themselves. Not even Canada saw this coming when they covered gender-affirming care.
Seriously … they don't have one doctor who specializes in this procedure?
This story is intriguing in many ways. First, there's a clinic in Austin that specializes in this sort of thing. And Canada actually turned the guy down as the procedure was considered "experimental." Now he's suing Canada to pay for surgery in Texas.