Martin Fuchs and transgender people

Martin Fuchs is an Austrian child and adolescent psychiatrist. Fuchs is lead researcher for a project on gender incongruence in children and adolescents.

Fuchs was a coauthor of the 2025 S2k guideline Gender Incongruence and Gender Dysphoria in Childhood and Adolescence – Diagnosis and Treatment.

Background

Fuchs holds the Austrian medical degree Dr. med. univ. and works in the Hall in Tirol department led by Kathrin Sevecke. The department has been based in Hall since November 2017 and treats patients up to age 18.

Fuchs is a senior consultant at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of Tirol Kliniken in Hall in Tirol, and is affiliated with the corresponding university clinic at the Medical University of Innsbruck.

Trans research

Fuchs has published on trans healthcare from a psychiatric perspective since 2017. From 2019 Fuchs sat on the steering group of the German-language S2k guideline as the delegate from Österreichische Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie [Austrian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy] (ÖGKJP). That 2025 guideline permits puberty blockers and hormones for adolescents after careful assessment. It is generally regarded as more supportive of medical transition than recent policy in England, Sweden or Finland, but it still promotes psychiatric gatekeeping.

Fuchs has published several papers with André Leonhardt, who spoke at a conference held by anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. They have discussed the merits and criticisms of anti-trans disease “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” which is promoted by SEGM, and they have cited research commissioned via the SEGM-McMaster funding scandal, later ended by lead researcher Gordon Guyatt. Fuchs’ discussion of Lisa Littman and citation of SEGM-funded work is an example of how anti-trans knowledge production gets laundered into mainstream academia by otherwise reputable clinicians.

Selected publications by Fuchs

Leonhardt A, Fuchs M, Sevecke K (2025). Geschlechtsdysphorie in der Adoleszenz: Klinische Orientierung in einem komplexen Feld [Gender dysphoria in adolescence: clinical orientation in a complex field]. Paediatr. Paedolog. 2026;61:24-27. Epub 2025 Dec 2. German. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00608-025-01342-5

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie (DGKJP) [German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy] (June 24, 2025). S2k-Leitlinie Geschlechtsinkongruenz und Geschlechtsdysphorie im Kindes- und Jugendalter – Diagnostik und Behandlung [Gender Incongruence and Gender Dysphoria in Childhood and Adolescence – Diagnosis and Treatment]. AWMF-Register-Nr. 028-014 https://register.awmf.org/de/leitlinien/detail/028-014

Leonhardt A, Fuchs M, Kohlboeck G, Bachler-Ortner N, Haid-Stecher N, Gander M, Sevecke K (2025). Distress Profiles of Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria: A Cluster Analysis Approach. Arch Sex Behav. 2025;54:3095-3109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03221-3

Leonhardt A, Fuchs M, Sevecke K (2024). Das Unbehagen am eigenen Geschlecht – Geschlechtsinkongruenz in der ICD-11 [The discomfort with one’s own gender – gender incongruence in ICD-11]. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr. 2024;73(8):737-752. German. https://doi.org/10.13109/prkk.2024.73.8.737

Leonhardt A, Fuchs M, Gander M, Sevecke K (2024). Gender dysphoria in adolescence: examining the rapid-onset hypothesis. Neuropsychiatr. 2025;39(1):1-10. Epub 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40211-024-00500-8

Fuchs M. (2021). Geboren im falschen Körper? Geschlechtsdysphorie im Kindes- und Jugendalter [Born in the wrong body? Gender dysphoria in childhood and adolescence]. Paediatr. Paedolog. 56, 67-72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00608-021-00869-7

Haid-Stecher N, Fuchs M, Ortner N, Sevecke K (2020). TransIdentität – Die Entwicklung der Identität bei transidenten Jugendlichen [Trans identity – identity development in trans* adolescents]. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr. 2020 Sep;69(6):541-553. https://doi.org/10.13109/prkk.2020.69.6.541

Fuchs M, Ortner N, Haid-Stecher N, Thun-Hohenstein L, Sevecke K (2020). Versorgungsmodelle für Kinder und Jugendliche mit Geschlechtsdysphorie: Überblick unter Berücksichtigung der österreichischen Behandlungsrealität [Care models for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: Overview considering the Austrian treatment reality]. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr. 2020 Sep;69(6):590-602. https://doi.org/10.13109/prkk.2020.69.6.590

Feulner J, Haid-Stecher N, Fleischmann S, Fuchs M, Sevecke K (2018). Zur Diagnostik und Therapie der Identitätsdiffusion im Kindes- und Jugendalter [Assessment and Therapy of Adolescent Identity Diffusion in Childhood and Adolescence]. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr. 2018 Nov;67(7):624-638. https://doi.org/10.13109/prkk.2018.67.7.624

Fuchs M, Praxmarer K., Sevecke K (2017). Transidentität in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie [Transgender identity in child and adolescent psychiatry]. Gynecological Endocrinology 2017;15:30-38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10304-016-0112-0

Resources

Tirol Kliniken (tirol-kliniken.at)

• Dr Martin Fuchs
• tirol-kliniken.at/page.cfm?vpath=standorte/landeskrankenhaus-hall/medizinisches-angebot/kinder–und-jugendpsychiatrie-psychotherapie-und-psychosomatik/wissenschaft-und-forschung/team/dr-martin-fuchs-md