London - Britain's Ministry of Defence said yesterday it had allowed up to five members of the armed forces to have sex-change operations carried out by the National Health Service.
A spokeswoman said the ministry's medical services did not have the surgeons to conduct such operations and referred interested soldiers to the National Health Service.
"If a member of the armed forces wants that done, they will go on the NHS waiting list," she said. "We don't have the surgical expertise to be able to do gender reassignment operations." However, hormone therapy treatment linked to the operations may be dispensed by regimental medical officers, "in which case, we would pay for that".
She added that the NHS had a requirement for people to "spend time living the life of the gender they want to be reassigned to" before having the procedure.