A gender clinician previously investigated twice by national medical authorities is yet again under scrutiny and is facing the possibility of losing his license to practice.
Dr. Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad, 73, who identifies as a “trans woman,” has recently been notified by the Norwegian Health Authority (NHA) that they are considering withdrawing his authorization to practice as a doctor, reportedly in response to complaints from other doctors over his tendency to bypass recommended medical protocols.
Benestad, a sexologist, trans activist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Agder, is considered Norway’s most prominent transgender person. Previously known as Esben Benestad, he announced his decision to declare a female identity on a television program called En Anselse Rødt in 1994, and the official addition of the feminine alias “Esther Pirelli” was approved by local authorities in 2000.
Norway’s TV 2 recently noted that Benestad had a history of failing to refer patients to the National Treatment Service for Gender Incongruence (NBTK) at Oslo University’s Rikshospitalet, preferring instead to administer or recommend cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and puberty-blocking drugs to patients out of his private clinic without proper oversight – and in some cases, in violation of established medical guidelines.
Benestad was first investigated in 2004 by the NHA for providing puberty-blocking drugs to young boys under the age of 14 in violation of Norwegian law. In September 2003, Chief Medical Officer at Rikshospitalet, Arnt Jakobsen, wrote a letter to the medical authorities describing Benestad’s practices as questionable, and referred to a boy between the ages of 14 – 15 who had been given “female sex hormones.”
At the time, Benestad denied providing hormones to teens, but admitted to “delaying puberty” in children. During an interview conducted in November 2009, Benestad recalled being reported to health authorities after prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to a nine year-old boy on an experimental basis.
In 2008, Benestad was again reported to national health authorities for misconduct related to three female patients he had referred for radical mastectomies. Benestad had fabricated diagnoses of health conditions in order to bypass medical guidelines and secure the female patients the procedures. Their ages are not known.
During the course of the second investigation, Benestad boasted about evading medical policies and laughed that he could not be sent to prison, as law enforcement “would have trouble finding out what jail” to place him in.
“I have a warning hanging over my head. If I do this again, they’ll take my license away,” Benestad said, and added that he could still prescribe hormones, despite attempts to prevent him from doing so.
This May, it was revealed that a young patient being given cross-sex hormones by Benestad had committed suicide.
The parents of the minor, who chose to remain anonymous, gave permission to the media to publish on their experience. Speaking with Blikk Magazine, they explained that the youth was placed on drugs to halt puberty by National Treatment Service for Gender Incongruence (NBTK) at Rikshospitalet.
While on puberty blockers, the teen was also privately being administered hormones by Benestad, thereby undermining the NBTK’s policy banning cross-sex hormones for minors under the age of 16. Shortly after, the youth’s treatment was again overtaken by NBTK. Approximately four months later, the unnamed minor committed suicide.
The parents told Blikk that they did not oppose the transitioning of minors, and were instead concerned that their child’s death would lead to measures preventing other ‘trans teens’ from accessing ‘gender affirming’ medical procedures.
Regarding the most recent complaint into Benestad, Anne Myhr, a director at the Norwegian Health Authority, told TV 2 that she could not comment on the specifics of the investigation as it is currently pending. According to Myhr, Benestad was allotted the usual three-week deadline to provide a statement to the NHA, and medical authorities will decide whether or not to proceed with a formal investigation after Benestad’s response has been considered.
Benestad’s academic career spans two decades, with his primary focus being on paraphilias. Benestad has advocated for normalizing sexual fetishes and is largely credited with introducing the concept of “gender euphoria” as an alternative to “gender dysphoria.” Benestad is also a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and has spoken at conferences hosted by the organization.
Benestad has advocated a theory of seven gender identities, one of which he calls the “Eunuch Gender.”
He was a speaker at a 2009 WPATH conference in Oslo where academics involved in a pedophilic and sadomasochistic fetish forum presented a concept of a eunuch gender identity which appears to have influenced Benestad’s own interest in the subject.
“There is an organized group called ‘Eunuch Genders,’ which are somatic males that want to remove their testicles because they they feel that those testicles aren’t them. Of course they are entitled to do that. I believe in self-determined gender,” Benestad said just months after the 2009 Oslo conference.
Christina Ellingsen, a Norwegian women’s rights campaigner, spoke to Reduxx on the investigation into Benestad’s license. She expressed hope that medical authorities would finally hold Benestad accountable for intentionally disregarding medical safeguarding policies.
“The entire field of trans health is seemingly pioneered by egomaniacs who will stop at nothing to legitimize their fetishes. Benestad is one example on a local level. But when WPATH allows men with castration fetishes to influence the standards of care used globally, Benestad is not the only bad apple. The whole industry is rotten and needs to be shut down,” Ellingsen says. “Norway has let Benestad off the hook several times in his career, but hopefully he will be held accountable this time.”
Ellingsen is the lead representative for Women’s Declaration International’s Norway chapter. Earlier this year, she revealed she was under investigation by law enforcement for a series of tweets asserting that men cannot be lesbians or mothers. If charged and convicted, Ellingsen faces up to three years in prison under Norway’s increasingly pro-gender ideology “hate crime” legislation.
“I hope the authorities are able to recognize the irreparable damage [Benestad] is enabling. Studies are beginning to reveal the high proportion of detransitioners who experience same-sex attraction. He is essentially authorized to conduct sterilizing medical experimentation on a vulnerable group, the majority of which being underage bisexual and lesbian women,” Ellingsen says. “These patients have a right to be protected against harm, and this right is currently being ignored, for seemingly no other reason than to accommodate a man who has very clearly turned his fetish into a career.”
In 2021, Benestad came under fire for requiring sexology students to attend a BDSM fetish club.
The club mandated a specific dress code of fetish gear, which one female student objected to and publicly criticized. Just months prior, Benestad presented a TED talk in Arendal wherein he compared being a fetishistic cross-dresser to being a member of a marginalized Indigenous community.
That same year, Benestad was awarded a gold medal for contributions to sexology and sexual health from the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), where Benestad serves as Chair of the Transgender and Diversity Committee.
Reduxx reached out to health administrators at Oslo University’s Rikshospitalet for comment on the investigation into Benestad’s license, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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