“If they want to become parents and raise a family, the science and medicine is there."

The UK’s National Health Service Is Freezing Trans Teens’ Sperm So They Can Be Parents Later

The U.K.’s National Health Service is freezing sperm and eggs for trans teens who are about to begin hormones, so they’ll have the option of becoming biological parents later in life.

Trans girls as young as 12 are having their sperm frozen before they begin taking puberty-blocking hormones, which can cause fertility issues down the line, especially if followed with hormone replacement therapy. NHS clinics are also offering to freeze the eggs of trans boys over the age of 16 before they start testosterone.

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“There needs to be national guidelines to allow equal access to fertility treatment across the country for trans patients,” Gary Butler, a clinician at the only NHS clinic for young people with gender dysphoria, told the Daily Mail. “Transgender people are not making a lifestyle choice. They are following their biological and psychological make-up about their identity.”

“If they want to become parents and raise a family, the science and medicine is there,” he added. “It’s the right of the individual to be able to do that.”

Harvesting eggs costs around $5,300 for one cycle, plus about $400 for storage per year. (In the U.S., a single cycle of ova can run $10,000 to $12,000, plus $800 per year for storage.) Procuring sperm runs about $530, plus $400 a year to keep it frozen.

So some critics say that’s taxpayer’s money being misspent.

“The NHS is about treating people who are ill. That’s what we pay our taxes for,” Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, former chair of the ethics committee of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, told the Mail. “It is not to aid people’s various wishes about what they want to do with their bodies or their futures.”

It’s a debate that hasn’t reached the U.S., where most insurance companies don’t cover the cost of puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy or transition-related surgery— which can be considerable—let alone foot the bill for freezing sperm or eggs for pre-trans clients.

And even if they did, nearly 20% of transgender Americans lack any kind of health insurance.