Shaving "insufficient"

Health insurance company must pay for epilation for trans woman

Permanent hair removal is possible with an alexandrite laser - the treatments cost several hundred euros.(Bild: Robert Kneschke)

The statutory health insurance company has been ordered by a court ruling to pay for the permanent removal of the beard hair of a transsexual woman born as a man. Temporary methods are not sufficient, the Labor and Social Court of Vienna ruled.

The claims of transsexuals against statutory health insurance have been strengthened by the ruling. The affected person had obtained reimbursement for the removal of beard hair after the health insurance company had refused to pay.

Daily shaving, waxing or other temporary methods are not sufficient and have psychological consequences, the "Presse" quoted from the ruling.

Trans woman: "Gender discrepancy" due to beard
The statutory health insurance company had argued that it would not pay for the removal of beard hair, even in the case of biological women. Reimbursement of costs for transsexuals would therefore contradict the principle of equality. In addition, daily shaving, hair removal creams or waxing could also be used. The person born male, who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, on the other hand, emphasized that the beard clearly highlighted the gender discrepancy and that this also had psychological consequences.

Daily burden of illness without depilation
This argument was followed by the Vienna Labor and Social Court in the ruling handed down last year but now published. "If the claimant had to shave her face every day, she would be reminded daily that she is of the wrong sex," said the judge. Waxing would require the hair to grow a few millimetres "so that the plaintiff would not be able to leave the house on such days" without being burdened by illness. The statutory health insurance company was ordered to pay for laser epilation.