Women transitioning to men must be offered egg storage on the NHS, because they have the right to become parents too, the British Fertility Society said as it published new guidance today.
Gender reassignment surgery has been available on the NHS since 1999 and the numbers of people choosing to change sex has grown considerably in the last decade, with some London clinics now handling nearly 2,000 referrals a year.
However many Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGS) currently do not fund fertility preservation for transgender people, even though hormone therapy and surgery destroys the chance of having children.
In new guidelines presented today at the Fertility 2018 meeting in Liverpool, healthcare experts called for ‘equity’ across the NHS, to allow ‘transfolk’ to freeze eggs, embryos or ovarian tissue.
Dr James Barrett, lead clinician at theGenderIdentity Clinic at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The number of people coming forward with gender dysphoria has increased rapidly over the past decade.
“But the consistent provision of NHS funding for fertility preservation for this group is yet to catch up.
“This is medical. It's people whose fertility is impaired as a result of actually NHS mandated treatment for a well-established condition that has been treated by the NHS for the last 50 years.”
Last year 202 actual sex swap operations were carried out at a cost the NHS of £9 million – up 23 per cent on figures from five years ago.
Melanie Davies, Department of Woman's Health,University College Hospitals London “I think five years ago we would not have been talking about treatment of transgender.
“Some CCGs say they will only fund for cancer. What I would like to see is equity. Yes we should be funding it.”
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Article: www.telegraph.co.uk 4th January 2018