The Cruel Condition

An investigation revealing the little-known 'sterilisation' laws that impacted trans people around Europe for decades.

September 2025

For years trans people have had to fight to have the state recognise their gender, key for acceptance in society – battles which for many continue to this day. Our new investigation exposes how thousands of trans people across Europe were pushed towards invasive surgery under ‘sterility’ laws imposed on them by national authorities.

In at least six EU countries sterilisation requirements – which typically meant undergoing at least a gonadectomy – were explicitly written into legislation on gender recognition. Investigate Europe research has uncovered that more than 11,000 people in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden were subject to such conditions in years ranging from 1972 to 2025. Without undergoing sterilising gender reassignment procedures, it was not possible to have one’s gender changed in state records.

The practices were common in several other EU countries too, the investigation found, and while effectively mandatory, they were not written into national laws. Consequently, the number of people pushed by their states to undergo the procedures is almost certainly much higher.

Many trans people actively seek gender reassignment surgery as part of a desired bodily transition. But not all of them do – at least not procedures that leave one permanently infertile. Due to these laws, thousands were ultimately deprived of the opportunity to choose freely. Our investigation details the previously unknown reach of such laws (now finally a thing of the past in the EU) and how years later, the impact of these decisions continue to impact trans people across Europe.

The investigation is being published with our media partners around the continent, including Arte in France, Taz in Germany, Il Manifesto in Italy, TransTelex in Romania and others. You can read the Investigate Europe story and those from our media partners below.

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Additional reporting: Lorenzo Buzzoni, Paula Zwolenski, Martin Vrba, Pascal Hansens, Eurydice Bersi, Leïla Miñano, Amund Trellevik and ⁨Matúš Zdút⁩.

Coordination: Attila Kálmán

Editing: Chris Matthews, Mei-Ling McNamara

Fact-checking: Wojciech Cieśla

Illustration: Spoovio/Fanis Kollias

IJ4EU (Investigative Journalism for Europe) provided funding support for the investigation.