According to the National Board of Health and Welfare's guidance to healthcare, a single healthcare visit should be sufficient to get the certificate needed to change one's gender identity in the population register. One of the purposes of the law is to make the process simpler.
Those who wish to change their legal gender will need a certificate from healthcare. Authorized doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, and healthcare curators will be able to issue the certificates.
"Digital or physical"
Since the legislation is technology-neutral, it is up to the care provider to decide whether it should be a digital or physical healthcare visit, says Ödman.
The application itself is then submitted to the National Board of Health and Welfare, which makes the decision. How long it may take to receive an answer is, according to Ödman, difficult to say, but they expect that there may be more in the beginning, when the law is new.
Can change again
According to the National Board of Health and Welfare's knowledge support, the person applying is assumed to live in the perceived gender identity for a foreseeable period. There are no prohibitions against changing back.
One can develop as a person and there are no rules about not being able to change back. The decisive factor is that one meets the criteria in the legislation, says Ödman.
According to a parliamentary decision last year, it will no longer be required to have a gender dysphoria diagnosis to change one's legal gender in the population register, and the age limit is lowered from 18 to 16 years as long as one has parental approval.
The new law comes into force on July 1.
There are more perspectives on gender, beyond the biological one that describes which gender cells a person produces.
Legal gender is the term for the gender that is registered in the population register and appears in a person's identity documents.
In Sweden, there are two legal genders: man and woman. In some countries, a third alternative exists, for example, for non-binary people who do not identify as man or woman.
A legal gender can be changed.
Gender identity is one's own perception of which gender one has. The identity can be constant or change over time.
Source: NE
