Gender dysphoria treatment

A friend of a friend of mine is currently being refused medical treatment on the NHS for a debilitating condition which seriously threatens her health, in one of the most vicious, idiotic and arbitrary Catch-22 policies I have ever had the horror to encounter.

She has created a petition to attempt to get the government to recognise the inhumane treatment to which she is being subjected, and to compel the Primary Care Trust in question to bring its policies in line with the rest of this (apparently 'civilised') country.

If you are a UK citizen or resident please consider signing the petition here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/gdoxpct/

Please also propagate this link. A minimum of 200 signatures are necessary for the petition to be considered.


A clarification of the Catch-22 in question, from sebastienne:

"To further explain the Catch-22:

Gender reassignment, in the UK, is mediated through specialist clinics. For the south of England, the specialist clinc is at Charing Cross Hospital in London. In order for Charing Cross to put you forward for surgery, you have to demonstrate that you are functioning day-to-day, living in your target gender.

In order to get funding out of Oxfordshire PCT, you have to demonstrate "extreme need" - and pretty much the only way to do this is to be so depressed as to be at risk of suicide. A state of mental health which then makes you ineligible for treatment by Charing Cross.

Oxfordshire PCT will only fund your gender reassignment when your condition, through non-treatment, has made you too ill to undergo surgery."

And a link to the full report referenced in the petition explanation, which gives some history as well as details of exactly what Oxfordshire PCT are doing wrong, and how they're doing it: PDF Article by Outen et al.