Woman wanted sex change 'to become Christ'

A former patient of the UK's best-known expert on transsexualism wanted a sex change in order to fulfil her delusion that she was Jesus, an inquiry heard today.

The woman, identified only as patient D, told the General Medical Council disciplinary panel that consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid had failed to recognise that she was suffering from manic depression when he gave her sex changing hormones and referred her for surgery to remove both her breasts.

Patient D told the hearing she had never been transsexual and considered it "lucky" that she was detained in a psychiatric hospital just before the operation was due to go ahead.
She said: "I think I should have been offered counselling and the possibility that it [my problem] was something else [other than transsexualism] should have been considered further."

The inquiry heard that she first saw Dr Reid in March 1996 after watching a TV programme about transsexualism, which convinced her this was the reason for her history of depression.

Dr Reid has admitted that he prescribed her with male hormones on her second appointment despite a second opinion from another psychiatrist warning that treatment should be delayed, pending further psychiatric assessment.

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