Psychiatrist in the UK up on 10 charges regarding sex change patients

Oct 19 2006

A psychiatrist in Britain well known for dealing with issues of gender has been brought before the General Medical Council (GMC) on 10 charges of serious professional misconduct with regard to his treatment of patients.

The allegations relate to five patients who attended his private clinic, The London Institute, in Earls Court, West London.

The case is also being brought by four psychiatrists from the Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic, where Dr. Reid worked one day a week.

Dr. Russell Reid has also been charged with wrongly providing sex-changing treatment to a severely mentally ill woman.

The 63 year old psychiatrist, originally from New Zealand, is accused of breaching guidelines for treating patients suffering from gender identity disorder while working as a psychiatrist at a private London clinic.

The GMC was told that some of Reid's patients later regretted their sex change and were left psychologically damaged by the operation.

The disciplinary hearing was told that Reid advised a male-to-female transsexual patient that he should work as an escort to pay for his sex change, as there was "a market for an effeminate young man such as yourself".

The inquiry also heard that a female patient, known as D, was rushed into taking hormones and a referral for a bilateral mastectomy, despite a second opinion from another psychiatrist Dr. Dalrymple, who noted there were discrepancies in her story and warned that sex change treatment should be delayed, pending further psychiatric assessment of the patient.

Barrister Richard Tyson, acting on behalf of the complainants, said patient D suddenly decided she wanted to become a man after watching a TV programme on transsexualism.

Dr. Reid prescribed hormone tablets and the patient had both breasts removed before Dr. Reid had obtained the required second opinion.

She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after injecting male hormones, which made her "feel so out of it she became convinced she was Jesus". She was found wandering the streets naked soon after her last appointment with Dr. Reid believing she was possessed by various spirits including that of her grandfather.

She was diagnosed with manic depression and after treatment patient D, who had a history of depression and had been treated with Prozac prior to seeing Dr Reid, no longer wished to change sex.

The woman has told the hearing that she is now stuck in "gender limbo" regrets the operation and by 1998 was considering a reversal.

Patient D's family repeatedly expressed their concern to Dr. Reid, warning that she had previously convinced an eye specialist that she needed glasses when she did not and her father wrote to Dr. Reid over his concerns that his daughter was being rushed into the radical treatment.

Reid has admitted he failed to adequately assess patient D's mental and physical health prior to prescribing hormones.

Dr. Reid has denied inappropriate behaviour towards the patients and he has also denied acting contrary to guidance given in the international gender dysphoria association standards of care; he has also denied a charge of serious professional misconduct in relation to the patients.

The guidelines state that those considering a sex change must have been unhappy with their gender for more than two years and a second opinion from another psychiatrist must be obtained before they can undergo surgery.

Patients must give informed consent and have lived in their chosen gender for at least a year before the operation.

The four psychiatrists claim that Dr. Reid repeatedly ignored the guidelines.

Dr. Reid has also been accused of prescribing hormone therapy, which can lead to breast development in men and deepening of the voice in women, for four patients after consultations lasting just one hour.

In one case patient F, was prescribed with 26 months of female hormones, without having the necessary physical checks done and was "devastated" when Dr. Reid issued a formal letter stating that she was a female-to-male transsexual when in fact the reverse was true.

Dr. Reid dismissed the concerns of one patient about her treatment, as "nit-picking".

Richard Tyson, representing the doctors and one of the patients, says Dr. Reid consistently jeopardised the safety of his patients, in particular by prescribing to them irreversible hormones to help change their gender without appropriate assessment and physical checks.