Transgender teenagers as young as twelve years old have started freezing their eggs and sperm so that if they have sex reassignment surgery they will still be able to have kids that are biologically their own.
“Transgender people are not making a lifestyle choice. They are following their biological and psychological make-up about their identity,” said the head clinician for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) for transgender youth Gary Butler, according to the Telegraph. “If they want to become parents and raise a family, the science and medicine is there. It’s the right of the individual to be able to do that,” he added.
Transgenders shouldn’t be denied any of the familial opportunities that other people are afforded Butler said, noting the importance of the freezing eggs for those with gender dysphoria. He and other doctors also agree that boys who feel they are biologically female should be allowed to freeze their sperm for future use, and have begun counseling young transgenders to do so.
Under the new NHS transgender youth program, transgenders who undergo psychological testing and receive a gender dysphoria diagnosis are referred to the Gender Identity Development clinic where doctors talk to them about freezing their sperm and eggs.
Not everyone is so keen on the idea that taxpayer dollars will now go to reproductive freezing services for transgenders however. “The NHS is about treating people who are ill – that’s what we pay our taxes for. It is not to aid people’s various wishes about what they want to do with their bodies or their futures,” said the former ethics committee chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali.
Just one cycle of egg-freezing and storage costs £4,300 ($5,700), and freezing sperm for a year costs £700 ($928).
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