Thursday 5th August 1999

Stop the hypocrisy over sex changes

Christa Ackroyd

I have never read so much reactionary clap trap as has been written about sex changes on the NHS following last week’s decision by the Appeal Court to uphold the ruling that three transsexuals from Lancashire should be given treatment.

The outcry that there were waiting lists as long as your arm for “normal” surgery was predictable.  I, too, find it impossible to imagine what it must be like to believe you have been born the wrong sex, but I do believe such people exist and so do many medics.

If gender identity dysphoria has now been established as a medical condition, why shouldn’t those who suffer from it be given treatment? There are said to be 5,000 people who’ve had, or who are waiting for, surgery for transsexualism.  Many have faced the trauma of having to admit their condition to loved ones and work colleagues.

Some have already undergone the necessary psychological profiling and hundreds have begun hormone treatment to change their sex.  To leave them in this sexual limbo is downright cruel.  And, when you consider the cost of the treatment for the depression so many suffer from, economic nonsense.  Just because we don’t have a need doesn’t mean a need doesn’t exist for others.

Times they are a-changing.  The Government is considering allowing transsexuals to change their birth certificates and marry, and the Defence Ministry has said that soldiers who have sex change operations will be allowed to stay in the Army and RAF.  No one can deny the health service is hard pressed to carry out treatment for everyone but then no one has ever argued that sex change ops should take precedence over major heart surgery or hip replacements.  Bunions are hardly life threatening either, but we’re happy to see those removed on the NHS without charge.

Copyright © 1999, Express Newspapers