Hormone 'blockers' could be offered to under-16s seeking sex change

Sex-change experts are considering reviews to current UK guidelines that could see treatment with "hormone blockers" extended to under-16s and transgender surgery to under-18s.

The moves, if approved, would be taken as a positive response to campaigning led by Kim Petras, currently the world's youngest transsexual, who at 16 succeeded in lobbying the German government to allow her to undergo a sex change.

The British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes has said it is looking at its rules, after it was revealed that a 12-year-old British boy hopes to become the world's youngest gender reassignment patient.

Born "Tim", the German teen said her birth as a boy in Cologne in 1992 was an "accident of nature". She won the right to become a woman last November.

But she is aware of how hard the fight for gender reassignment is. "I was bullied, especially by people who I didn't know or from other schools. I had to fight to be myself for my entire life."

However successful, her story is likely to be scant consolation for the two British children who were "outed" last week by their schools as suffering from "gender dysphoria" – feeling trapped in the wrong body.

One, aged 12, from West Sussex, attempted to make the transition from primary to secondary school while going from schoolboy to schoolgirl, before being recognised by former classmates.

Another,only nine years old, was presented to peers as a "new girl", having returned to school after the holidays in girl's uniform and with a long ponytail.