The proposal separates the process of changing an individual's legal gender from the process of changing gender medically, public broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
"It's quite different to change your legal gender, where we assess that we can lower the age limit from 18 to 16 years," health minister Lena Hallengren told the radio.
"Concerning medical gender, however, which would mean undertaking gender correction surgery and medical procedures, the age limit will remain the same."
Furthermore, it will change the system of changing medical gender so that applicants no longer need permission from the National Board of Health and Welfare to do so. Instead, healthcare services will be responsible for determining whether a patient would benefit from gender-corrective surgery.
The proposal is expected to be discussed in parliament after the September election, at the earliest, after the Swedish Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) has made a statement on the subject.
In Sweden, changing your legal gender means, among other things, changing your gender on official documents and in the population register, as well as changing the penultimate digit of your personal number to match your new gender - this number is always odd for men and even for women.
In an earlier proposal from last year which was not made law, the government considered lowering the age at which an individual could change their legal gender in Sweden's population register to 12 years.
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