More than 300 transgender children a year are starting puberty-blocking drugs, new figures reveal.
According to the BBC’s flagship programme the Victoria Derbyshire show, hundreds of youngsters are being referred to specialist clinics for injections that delay breast development, voice deepening and body hair.
The treatment, which is available on the NHS to under-16s, postpones adolescence to allow children time to decide if they wish to live as a man or a woman.
An 11-year-old transgender girl, who goes by Jessica, has opted for the therapy to stop her growing a beard.
Although the effects are reversible, Jessica’s mother Ella sees the move as ‘the end of [my son] James’ but insists all she wants is for her now-daughter to be happy.
More than 300 transgender children a year are starting puberty-blocking drugs (stock)
Specialist clinic gets 50 visitors a week
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust is the UK’s main centre specialising in gender issues in children and teenagers.
Its visitor numbers have recently risen by 25 per cent, equaling around 50 a week.
Doctors believe this increase is due to growing awareness of transgender people and their treatment options.
‘She can be a woman if that’s what she wants to do’
The mother of a 10-year-old transgender girl, known as Lily, told the Victoria Derbyshire show: ‘She can be a woman and develop as a woman and grow up as a lady if that’s what she wants to do.’
Lily has been told by classmates she will never be a ‘proper’ woman, which makes her feel ‘upset’.
Both Lily and Jessica recently spent the weekend at a camp for trans children and their families run by the charity Mermaids.
Mermaids’ founder Suzie Green, who has reported 17 abusive online messages to the police in the past six months, said: ‘We were being called paedophiles, we were being accused of being child abusers.’
A mock-up van with puppies and sweets on the side has even been created, which accuses Mermaids of trawling infant schools looking for children to make transgender.
Speaking of the abuse, a 13-year-old trans boy, who goes Cass, added: ‘I’m not going to try and change everyone’s opinion but I think people should just know we are humans and just because we don’t feel comfortable in our bodies, that’s not a reason for people to send us hate.’
More than half of young trans people claim to have have been the victim of a hate crime in the past year, according to the charity Stonewall.