The mother of a 14-year-old boy who wants to have sex change treatment says it should be allowed on the NHS before a child reaches puberty.
Carole Smith says her son wants to become a girl and should be allowed the hormone blockers now before he reaches 18.
According to The Sun, Georgie’s mum (not his real name) blasted health chiefs for banning youngsters from taking sex change drugs until after puberty.
The newspaper reports that ‘Georgie’ dresses like a girl and wears make up to school.
Georgie’s mother says he should be given sex change drugs now because she is worried that by the time he has gone through puberty he will have large hands and be tall.
Georgie says: “I’m old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl.”
Hormone blocking drugs are often given as a precursor to full sex change surgery.
However, critics of sex change operations say that gender dysphoria is a psychiatric problem, not a physical one, and radical physical surgery does more harm than good.
Doctors from the NHS Portman Clinic – an internationally acclaimed centre – have stated, “what many patients find is that they are left with a mutilated body, but the internal conflicts remain”.
Many transsexuals regret their decision to live in the opposite sex. A Home Office report on transsexualism said: “Many people revert to their biological sex after living for some time in the opposite sex”.
Earlier this year it was reported that a 12-year-old boy had started his new term at school dressed as a girl.
Newspapers said other pupils were left confused and upset after the boy’s decision was announced in a school assembly.
Pupils were warned that if they refused to refer to the boy as a girl and use the new name he had adopted they would face punishment.
One mother said what had really upset the parents was that the school had not sent them a letter explaining what had happened so they could tell their children about it in their own way.
She added: “Parents surely have a right to know when their children are being confronted with such sensitive issues as gender realignment at such a young age.”
The school, in the south of England, provided the pupil with a separate toilet and changing room in the sports hall. The name of the school was not disclosed.