Sex swap patient hits out at surgeon

A businessman who had a sex change operation but hated life as a woman has taken Britain's most famous gender-swap doctor to the General Medical Council.

After he decided to become a man again, Charles Kane reported consultant psychiatrist Russell Reid - Britain's best-known expert on transsexualism - for allegedly breaching international standards of care.

Mr Kane, 43, formerly known as Sam Hashimi, claims Dr Reid, a specialist in gender identity disorder at a west London clinic, referred him for surgery after he had lived as a woman for only 30 days. The operation was carried out four months later when, the businessman says, the process should have taken more than a year.

Iraqi-born Mr Kane, who is now living as a man after being briefly known as Samantha, said: "It was certainly not the right course of action for me.

"It was intolerable. I had to go through several operations to try to repair the damage that had been done."

Mr Kane, a British designer and property developer, became famous after leading a takeover bid for Sheffield United in 1990.

He first saw Dr Reid in 1997 after suffering a "severe mental breakdown" caused by the end of his marriage. Under international guidelines, Mr Kane says, he should have lived as a woman for at least three months before being prescribed hormones - or should have undergone at least three months of psychotherapy.

After that, and before being referred for surgery, at least 12 months of hormone therapy should allegedly also have been carried out. Mr Kane says he should have lived as a woman for at least a year as well.

The guidelines, however, are not legally binding.

After an initial investigation, the GMC decided there was " insufficient cogent and credible prima facie evidence" to suspend Dr Reid from the medical register or restrict his practice. The GMC will now decide if Dr Reid must face a full investigation.

The case against Dr Reid - a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' gender identity working party - was initiated by three other senior consultant psychiatrists: Donald Montgomery, Richard Green and James Barratt.

They work at the NHS Charing Cross gender identity clinic in west London and submitted the cases of 12 of Dr Reid's patients, including Mr Kane, to the GMC, claiming some had regretted changing sex. The GMC initially decided to investigate three of the cases and is now considering looking into the other nine.

The Charing Cross psychiatrists say Dr Reid did not stick to minimum eligibility guidelines for prescribing hormones or referral for genital surgery.

But Claire MacNab, vice-president of the transgender pressure group Press for Change, said Dr Reid had been defended by several other experts, including a surgeon from Charing Cross hospital, a member of the international gender dysphoria board and Professor Louis Gooren, an endocrinologist at Vrije University hospital in Amsterdam. He has also been supported by more than 150 patients.

A spokesman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists described the case as "a dispute between expert colleagues".