Almost as soon as she could speak, Nina told her parents she was not a boy and she has lived as a girl since she was seven. Until recently, she was happy. But now aged 12 and wanting to stop the onset of male puberty, a ruling by Britain’s High Court has plunged Nina and dozens of other children struggling with gender dysphoria into limbo by restricting access to puberty-blocking drugs.

The judges ruled that under-16s were unlikely to be able to give informed consent to such medication, and doctors must now get a judge’s approval - a so-called “best interests order” - to prescribe them to adolescent patients. Days after the ruling, Nina’s appointment the following week with specialists - whom she hoped would prescribe the medication - was cancelled and no new date was scheduled.

With the court ruling leaving a void in treatment, some parents are now filling the gap left by seeking drugs for their children from privately funded services.

“I feel like I’m living in a nightmare,” said Nina’s mother, Juliet, whose daughter has attended England’s sole youth gender clinic - the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) - since she was five. Read more via Reuters