A female medical student who began treatment to become a man has warned how encouraging children to undergo such procedures could create one of the “great medical blunders” of our time.

Kate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had injected herself with hormones causing her voice to drop and her face to grow prominent hair. However, she later abandoned the treatment after deciding she was not transgender.

Explaining how she had been encouraged to undergo the treatment after visiting online forums, she warned that “great harm” could be caused by groups eager to coax parents and their children into believing a child struggling with their sex was simply born the wrong gender.

In an interview with Radio 4, Kate, who began her treatment in her early 20’s, said she believes that had her confusion over her sex happened today she could well have undergone treatment but later regretted it.

“I’m very concerned that if I was a teenager now or even younger that I or my parents would be pushed to consider me then as transgender,” she said. “I would have welcomed that at the time. I wanted to be a boy when I was younger because boys were allowed to be assertive and confident. A young person may now take hormones or have surgery and later regret it.