14 DAY TRIAL // 18-Year-Old Ria Cooper, dubbed Britain's youngest gender reassignment patient, underwent hormone injections for a year, to turn into a woman. Ria now wants to go back to her/his previous identity, as Brad.
Ria has attempted suicide twice during the year of hormone injections, and now believes that teenagers shouldn't be allowed to make these life-changing decisions. As Brad, he saw a psychologist since the age of 15, following fights and bullying due to being gay, the Mirror reports.
At 15, doctors at the Gender Identity Clinic in London, agreed that Brad was, in fact, a woman trapped in a man's body, and gave the OK for him to start the injections. The teenager was even scheduled for gender reassignment surgery in January, but now backed out.
Female hormone injections have caused changes in Ria's body, as her chest developed and her facial and bodily hair stopped growing the same as before. Wearing women's clothing followed, and the Cooper family rejected and eventually kicked out the young aspiring woman.
“I just can’t be what I want to be. My mum Elaine loves and supports me as much as she can, yet she doesn’t allow me to live at home any more. My dad barely speaks to me and says I’m an embarrassment. I think as the only boy in the family he thought I’d follow him into the steel business and pictured us working out together at the gym,” Ria says.
Ria has decided to go back to being Brad, a gay but perhaps happier man.
“I don’t regret my original decision. I’ve always known I wanted to be female since I was a little girl but it’s all led to so much trouble,” she explains.
“It will be strange because the last time I dressed properly as a boy I was about 10 years old. [...] I’m still conscious of the way I look and I want to look like a trendy gay man rather than a girl-boy.” she says.