Detransitioner: ‘The NHS should expect legal action’

A woman who underwent drastic surgery in an attempt to live as a man has said she expects the NHS will face legal action from detransitioners in the future.

Sinéad Watson, 31, started identifying as a man from the age of 20 – taking the name Sean and wearing a breast-binder. However, when this did not help, she began to take testosterone and underwent several life-changing operations.

Speaking at a meeting hosted by pro-women campaign groups For Women Scotland and the LGB Alliance, she said: “We cannot let this keep happening to our daughters. It will be on the shoulders of detransitioners in the future to pursue lawsuits if they want to. So far I don’t know any groups that are organising that. I absolutely foresee it.”

‘Unacceptable’

The Scottish Government has come under fire for its controversial plans to allow people to change their legal sex based on self-declaration. Currently, Scots wishing to ‘change sex’ must have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and live as if a member of their chosen sex for at least two years.

But the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill proposes ditching the requirement for the approval of two doctors. If passed, it would also reduce the waiting time to just six months and lower the age that people can apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate from 18 to 16.

Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has called the plan ‘unacceptable’ because it “diminishes women’s rights”.

Influence

Earlier this year, Watson told The Times how her first exposure to the notion that she may be a man came from the internet – including YouTube and blogging site Tumblr.

While growing up she saw herself as a ‘tomboy’, but “felt really disgusting and gross and embarrassed” when she had her first period.

She became increasingly unhappy with the unwelcome attention she received from having large breasts and says her gender dysphoria was made worse by repeated sexual assaults in her teenage years.