Prisha Mosley can spend hours gazing at her six-month-old son, marvelling at how he’s beginning to reach for objects, sit up with support and make babbling sounds. The first-time mother says her favourite moments are when the baby wakes up in the early morning and they snuggle in bed. These occasions are precious but full of regret for the 26 year old, who has been left with permanent health problems after transitioning from female to male as a troubled teen, only to decide she’d made a mistake and reverse course a few years later.
Having undergone a double mastectomy at the age of just 18, she is unable to hug her baby properly and breastfeeding, of course, is out of the question. “He looks for milk and it’s not there,” she sighs. “My chest is numb and covered in scars and lumps so it’s not soft and pillowy, like it should be for a baby.
“I can feel him against my neck, shoulders and stomach, but it’s like there’s a big hole where my chest should be, because there’s no sensation there.” Prisha is one of a rising number of young people who believe they were failed by medical professionals and fast-tracked into changing gender without being made fully aware of the consequences. It’s an issue, of course, that’s becoming increasingly fraught in the UK, with the Government announcing an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for children last week, saying they present “an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people under 18 years without signi.
