North Texas Prison Poised for First Gender-Affirming Surgery for Trans Inmate

Cristina Nichole Iglesias, a prisoner at Federal Medical Center Carswell serving 20 years for sending death threats to the British government when she was 19, may be the first inmate to receive gender-affirming surgery in federal prison after unsuccessfully petitioning the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to approve the procedure in 2016, reports Insider by way of the Dallas Morning News. Federal judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel reopened Iglesias’ case on December 27, 2021, ordering the BOP to revisit the matter again before January 24, 2022, writing in her order that “Iglesias’s mental health has severely deteriorated because of the trauma she has experienced from being denied necessary treatment for her gender dysphoria and harassment at male facilities.”

Rosenstengel said that the BOP should approve and schedule Iglesias’ surgery as soon as possible in order for it to be performed before her release date in December 2022. While the BOP is aware of Iglesias’ diagnosis, the ACLU stated Iglesias has not been able to receive medical treatment to help manage her dysphoria during the 27 years she’s been in federal custody. The BOP did not consider “gender confirmation surgery (GCS)” medically necessary for trans inmates until October 2021 and the ACLU reports that there are currently 1,200 transgender prisoners in federal custody, none of whom have received the procedure during their sentences.