Created: 15/12/2025 - Last updated: 29/03/2026
I'm genderqueer and have decided to seek treatment for gender dysphoria in the country I currently live in, Finland. Here are my notes about how it's going for future reference.
To get gender-related treatment in Finland (whether we're talking HRT, surgeries or else), one needs to go through a Gender Identity Clinic (or to a private clinic, which costs a lot of money). There are two Gender Identity Clinics in Finland, one in Helsinki (the capital) and one in Tampere. I will attempt to go through the Helsinki one, so this article only applies to this one, although both processes should be similar.
The expected timeline towards gender-related treatment as of writing this article seems to be: some months to get a referral and for it to be accepted, 2-3 years going through the Clinic before getting a diagnosis, and then if the patient does get their diagnosis, then the treatment can start, some immediately (like HRT), some with a delay (some surgeries can only be booked one year after the diagnosis, and on top of this there's usually a 6 months queue before getting any surgery due to lack of nurses).
The first step in this long journey is to get a referral to the Gender Identity Clinic (Sukupuoli-identiteetin tutkimusvastaanotto, in Finnish).
Knowing the name of a private doctor whose referrals to the Gender Identity Clinic supposedly always go through, I was thinking of going to him until I realized that one appointment with him cost at least 350€... So I decided to start with the public instead (it should cost 20€), and to keep him in mind as a last resort only!
Finally gathering my courage, I called my health station on Monday, December 15th at 8am and asked for a callback for a non-urgent appointment. When they called me back around 10.30, I had to repeat "I would like an apppointment with a doctor to get a referral to the Gender Identity Clinic" three times before I finally said the Finnish name of the clinic and the person on the phone went "Ah, so you don't know if you're a man or a woman, and you need help with this?"... Sure. Great start. I explained that I know "what I am" (I didn't want to go too deep into the details with this person who clearly didn't know much about the subject) and that I wanted treatment. They asked me since when have I felt this way, and I answered since 2018. Finally, they told me that there's a free time on the 29th of December, but when I asked what doctor would it be with, they gave me the name of a doctor I didn't want (due to previous bad experiences with them), so I asked to change it. Turns out, I was unknowingly in a special healthcare pilot program, and although changing doctors is usually easy, in my case I had to go to the health station, sign a few documents and wait three weeks for the change to be done before I could try to get an appointment again. I hesitated, but I really felt like this doctor would make things very difficult, so I decided to make the change on that same day. Let's try again in three weeks!
On the same day, I also sent an email to my former psychologist to warn them about the fact that I was starting a process to get treatment in the Gender Identity Clinic, and that the people there might contact them to get information about me. I told them that I wouldn't mind them saying that I came out to them many years ago, but that I didn't want any of my other information to be shared with the Gender Identity Clinic.
Even though the health station had told me it would take 3 weeks to change doctors, I decided to check after two weeks and it had been done already! The secretary was also much more chill, she was able to check what the previous person had written on the 15.12 and just said "So you want an appointment about your gender?" and "Is this for the start of the treatment or the continuation?" and that was it. I got an appointment! It's in one month, but the important part is that I got it.
Cost: 30.20€
The appointment was with a doctor I didn't know, but it went very well! The doctor was apologetic because it was her first time doing this kind of referal so she had to constantly check the referral guidelines, but honestly that sounds like a plus more than anything! Although I had printed the Trasek document highlighting patients rights to get a referral to the Gender Identity Clinic, I didn't need to show it because she was obviously on board and didn't need convincing - which was a huge relief. We only had 30 minutes, but managed to fit everything during this time, and she was able to send in the referral by the end of the appointment.
She also mentioned a physical health check-up is usually required, but because I have regular ones because of some health issues, she didn't make me go through it. Similarly, she mentioned that the guideline suggests making me go through a mental health assessment, but because I don't have a mental health history, she made me skip it (it's of course very possible I will still have to do a similar thing later on).
The referral she wrote included:
On the very next day, I woke up to a text from the Gender Identity Clinic giving me an appointment two weeks later, meaning the referral was accepted! One big step done!
The appointment lasted 1.5 hours, was through video call with a nurse, and I think it went well!
She had read my referral and asked me more questions about some parts of it, especially about my experience with gender, but also about my daily life, particularly about my social life (eg. specific questions about the quality of my mariage, my social network, etc.) and how well do I function with daily tasks (how many times do I shower & brush my teeth, who takes care of the chores at home, etc.).
We also talked about my wishes for treatment. She reassured me that it's ok if I don't have everything figured out, and that part of their work is helping their patients understand what kind of treatments they want and need. I asked confirmation that as a non-binary person, I could potentially be able to have top surgery without taking hormones, which she confirmed.
She then explained to me the broad outline of how my journey through the gender clinic would go. After this introduction meeting, there should be 3-4 "life span interviews", during which I talk about my life so far, as well as my wishes for treatment. Then there are potential psychiatric and psychological evaluations, and doctor appointments before the potential diagnosis. There are also some social worker available if patients need help coping with disphoria, or need help to come out to their closed ones (eg. one can come out to their family with the help of the social worker during an appointment). She said the average time before diagnosis is 2 years, sometimes more.
After the appointment, she sent me a long questionaire about disphoria but also depression, anxiety, quality of life, alcohol & drug consumption, etc. I had to either print and bring the questionaire to my next appointment, or fill it online and send it back to them (which I did). She also sent me 9 different articles (mostly in Finnish) on subjects such as top surgery, effects of testosterone, how treatment of trans individuals alleviates disphoria, and more.
The appointment lasted one hour, face to face with a nurse (note that there was an online appointment option, I chose face to face myself). The nurse was new to me, but I should keep the same person for all life span interviews.
The main goal of this appointment was to give the Gender Clinic an idea of what my life has looked like from birth until now. We alternated between the nurse asking specific questions about some subjects, and me volunteering informations that I thought were relevant. The point of this appointment was not to talk about gender, although if the topic came up (for instance when talking about puberty), it was possible to already talk about it in some way.
Starting with my birth, I was asked if - to my knowledge - I had any development problems as a baby, and if I remembered what my life was like before I started school. Then switching to school, I was asked if I was at any time suspected of or diagnosed with learning difficulties, for instance dyslexia, and if I had difficulties at school. I was also asked about my ability to make and maintain friends and social links in general, as well as what kind of child I was, if I was considered an "easy" or "difficult" child etc. Touching on puberty, I was asked when did my puberty start and what feelings I had through it. There was also a lot of insistence in asking if I felt different from my peers at that time - trying to dodge an autistic suspection if I said I felt completely different, I answered that although I had very different feelings from my peers when it came to puberty, I otherwise didn't feel different from them in other areas of life. There were also questions about past self-harm, along with a clarification that self harm also includes things like purposeful starvation or reckless substance abuse. Continuing to higher education, more questions came about how did I do in school and social relationships. I was asked about my relationship with my parents, and when I said I wasn't in contact with them and detailed the situation, the nurse took it seriously and I didn't feel under excessive scrutiny because of that fact. Finally, I was asked about my current life situation - especially concerning work and romantic relationships - and what were my plans and hopes for the future.
[upcoming]
In addition to the links below, I have some additional advice made by trans people living in Finland which I don't want to share publicly, so you can contact me if you want to take a look at them. They include scans of the Gender Identity Clinic questionnaires, as well as lists of trans-friendly services.