{"id":486425,"date":"2026-02-20T00:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486425\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:04:16","slug":"cuts-increase-montreal-wait-times-for-gender-affirming-surgeries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486425\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuts increase Montreal wait times for gender affirming surgeries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montrealers who want gender affirming surgeries are facing longer wait times because of what one clinic says is a reduction in funding from Quebec\u2019s health ministry and Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

GrS Montreal, a private clinic, receives public funding to perform a variety of gender affirming surgeries for Quebec residents in the city. They say that the funding cuts have directly impacted wait times that can range from 24 months to 36 months, depending on the surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it represents a cut of about 30 per cent of the volume that was done for patients in Quebec,\u201d said Dr. Michel Gagner, the owner of GrS Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense if you\u2019re going to decrease the waiting time of hip surgeries and knee surgeries and other types of surgeries, and at the expense of this group where you take the money, you remove it, and suddenly the waiting time is 36-48 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Michel Gagner, the owner of GrS Montreal. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews)<\/p>\n

Celeste Trianon, a trans advocate and founder of Juritrans Legal Clinic, said, \u201cIt is absolutely a government problem. The thing is, gender healthcare can be treated like any other form of healthcare in Quebec. It can be offered through RAMQ. It could be offered through our public hospital system. But instead, the Quebec government has put a privative clause into the regulation respecting the Health Insurance Act, locking any access to gender affirming healthcare through the public system. For example, breast cancer patients can get a mastectomy in the public hospital. A trans man cannot because of this privative clause. So this means that GrS Montreal has a monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Brunet, the chair of the council for the Protection of Patients, added, \u201cThis is a situation where some people, it\u2019s a matter of life or death concerning their own personality and their own dignity. So of course, we find it very shameful that the state is starting to cut or to reduce such services that are essential to some of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surgeries are performed in Montreal inside a private hospital centre known as the CMC.<\/p>\n

Celeste Trianon, a trans advocate, says that GrS Montreal is the only option in the city for people to get subsidized gender affirming surgeries and that the wait times can have a significant impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"CMC private hospital centre \u2013 Centre M\u00e9tropolitain de Chirurgie. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact can be quite extreme. It can be psychological. It can be a question of people not being able to feel good in their own bodies. It can also be physical. As for instance, for example, in the case of mastectomies, which is a breast removal surgery, in cases for trans men, they have to wear oftentimes things like trans tape, chest binders, and other things to hide the appearance of having breasts, which can cause fiscal discomfort or, actually, body harm if done for too long,\u201d said Trianon.<\/p>\n

Dr. Gagner said, \u201cIt could result in some cases even suicide. So there is, there would be a mortality with very prolonged waiting time for this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

GrS Montreal adds that they have been making efforts with Quebec\u2019s health ministry and Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec to document the impact their wait times are having, and are actively trying to secure funding to reduce the delays for surgeries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s devastating for a lot of the patients, and we hope that the government will hear our arguments. We hope that the community will help us making this argument across the board, known to the public, and I believe we\u2019ll find a solution soon,\u201d said Dr. Gagner.<\/p>\n

Trianon added, \u201cThere are ways to resolve this at lower cost, yet at the same time, the Quebec government has shown a complete disinterest in the matter. So I really do hope that this is something which the government will just realize is healthcare, just like any other form of healthcare ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montrealers who want gender affirming surgeries are facing longer wait times because of what one clinic says is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-486425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}