Orazio Schillaci

Orazio Schillaci (born 27 April 1966) is an Italian politician who has been Minister of Health in the Meloni government since October 2022.

In 1990 he graduated in medicine and surgery at Sapienza University, where he then obtained in 1994 the specialization in nuclear medicine; until 2001 he was a researcher at the University of L'Aquila. In 2001 he moved to the University of Rome Tor Vergata as associate professor of nuclear medicine. From 2007 he became full professor, and in 2008 director of the school of specialization in nuclear medicine. In the three-year period 2006-2009 he was an expert member of the Superior Health Council. From 2011 to 2019 he was vice president and then president of the faculty of medicine and surgery of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and in 2019 he was elected rector of the same university.

In September 2023 it was reported in Science that evidence of possible scientific misconduct, in the form of duplicated images, had been found in eight scientific articles published by Schillaci between 2018 and 2022.

In January 2024, as Minister of Health, Schillaci ordered an inspection to verify the prescription methods of the Careggi University Hospital and to hold a roundtable discussion on the "pathways related to the treatment of children with gender dysphoria and the use of the drug triptorelin." Triptorelin is a puberty-blocking medication to prevent or stop development of the body changes associated with puberty. The technical name for puberty blockers is gonadotropin releasing hormone analogues (GnRHa). Treatment of transgender adolescents with puberty blockers is fairly recent. Little information is available regarding long-term outcomes. However, for approximately the last 30 years, these medications have been successfully used to treat precocious puberty with few side effects]. Currently Italy has 23 recognized centers for the treatment of gender dysphoria. The goal of the roundtable discussion is make the standardize the management and the pharmacological approach with respect to the treatment of persons with gender dysphoria / gender variance.