Haunting stories of those scarred by sex change treatment

THE court was given harrowing testimonies from dozens of young women who wrote of how their lives have been ruined by sex change treatments.

Judges heard how over the past decade there had been a huge rise in the number of girls identifying as male, and that 70 per cent of adolescent referrals to the Tavistock clinic were female.

Expert witness Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of parent campaign group Transgender Trend, compiled t he accounts from online posts. They came from young women across the world

‘How could doctors let this happen?’

who refer to t hemselves as ‘detransitioners’. Ms Davies-Arai blamed the worrying rise on social media, ‘selfie culture’ and society’s increasing sexualisation of young women. She said this was leading girls to become obsessed with their body image and ‘fear’ becoming women.

One woman who underwent sex change surgery, Lucy, said she felt ‘mutilated’ afterwards.

She wrote: ‘I’m horrified that when I went for the hysterectomy they didn’t emphasise to me how important these organs are. Now it’s too late. I’m 23 and I am basically in menopause and all the health implications that come with that.

‘I can’t comprehend how doctors could let this happen.’

Another young woman told a news website that she was ‘traumatised’ by the sex change operation, saying: ‘I had chest surgery. It was botched and I was left with terrible scarring.’

A detransitioner called Lee said on an internet blog post she was given powerful drugs by a doctor with almost no assessment of her psychological or physical health.

She said: ‘I went to see a gender doctor privately in London. On the first appointment, he said,

“Let’s not waste any more time”, and injected me with testosterone. It was what I wanted but now I think it was wrong – what I really needed was psychotherapy.’

Ms Davies-Arai said the Tavistock clinic was aware there were young women who were now regretting sex change treatments, but claimed it had not taken any action.