A court in Vienna, Austria, has ruled that the country’s public health insurance must pay for the removal of facial hair from a trans woman who was born as a biological man.
The 35-year-old plaintiff, who had been diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” – not identifying with one’s biological sex — had started a hormone therapy that slowed down beard growth but did not prevent it altogether.
The plaintiff started a series of 20 laser epilation sessions with a dermatologist to have her facial hair removed for which she sought reimbursement from public health insurance.
The claim was denied, with the insurer arguing that the plaintiff’s beard growth was merely a subjective cosmetic impairment and not an illness. Such a “minor disturbance of the appearance” would not require the insurance to cover the costs, it said.
The insurer added that neither women or men could have the cost of their facial hair removal born by public health insurance.
Likewise, the insurance would not cover the cost of hair removal in the bikini zone or on the legs, even though many women perceived such hair growth as a burden.
A hairless appearance of the face could also be achieved by shaving daily, applying hair removal creams or waxing, the insurer’s lawyers argued.
The court, though, did not agree with these arguments. Based on an expert opinion by a gynaecologist, Judge Maria Nazari-Montazer ruled that removal of the plaintiff’s beard hair not only served to influence his outward appearance but was “an additional means of physically harmonising the plaintiff’s anatomically male body with her female gender identity”. Therefore, it served to alleviate her gender dysphoria in a manner similar to hormone therapy.
Furthermore, the plaintiff’s situation “could not be equated with that of an originally biological woman who experiences her body hair as a burden without suffering from a mental illness as a consequence”.
“The respective level of suffering differs enormously and is not comparable. The court is also not aware of any cases of suicidal behaviour for this reason,” the judge’s ruling read.
Shaving or waxing were similarly not suitable means to remove the plaintiff’s “male connotated” facial hair as the necessary repeated application would “exacerbate the gender dysphoria” and potentially cause her “microtraumata” with potentially negative effects.
As a consequence, the laser epilation sessions were “indispensable” and had to be covered by the insurance.
Consequently, the court ordered the health insurer to refund the plaintiff €47.17 per epilation session.
