The Mato Grosso court ordered a diagnostic testing laboratory to pay compensation for moral damages, in the amount of R$10,000, for refusing to perform a prostate cancer screening test on a 23-year-old transsexual student. The decision considered that the establishment acted in a discriminatory manner.
According to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, the student only took the exam after obtaining an injunction, confirmed by the sentence handed down by judge Glenda Borges, from the 4th Special Civil Court of Cuiabá, last Wednesday (13). The process is being carried out in secret and can be appealed.
The young woman went to the laboratory for the first time on February 14, with a medical recommendation and authorization from a health plan, to carry out the test for prostate cancer screening. However, at the time the team would have informed that women cannot undergo the procedure — she had undergone sexual reassignment surgery 15 days earlier, in Rio de Janeiro.
After receiving the denial, she said she pushed for an explanation, but was asked in front of other people whether she really was a trans woman. She explained that yes, she still had a prostate and needed the exam urgently to investigate possible cancer.
Moments later, the attendant shared the information with her coworkers, and, little by little, the place filled with employees. “I burst into tears and, after a long wait and humiliation, I was informed by the unit manager that I couldn’t take the exam,” said the young woman.
