The number of children referred to gender identity clinics has doubled in the last year.

Children as young as three were among the 1,419 under-16s who received support during 2015/16.

That's an increase from the 697 children the previous year who believe they were born in the wrong body.

Figures from the Gender Identity Development Service, part of The Tavistock Centre (pictured), show they treated three children aged three last year

Parents are now having to wait up to nine months to take their child to a clinic after being referred by their GP.

Figures from the Gender Identity Development Service show they treated three children aged three last year.

Dr Polly Carmichael, from the clinic which is part of the Tavistock Centre, told The Sun the rise was unprecedented.

'Young people are making the full social transition — living full-time in their preferred gender inside and outside the home — at earlier ages,' she said.

Children as young as three were among the 1,419 under-16s who received support during 2015/16

JESSICA, NINE, WAS BORN A BOY BUT HAS GONE TO SCHOOL AS A GIRL Nine-year-old Jessica was born a boy but has gone to primary school as a girl since 2014 Nine-year-old Jessica was born a boy but has gone to primary school as a girl since 2014. The transgender child is being brought up by her mother Ella and her partner Alex – who is in the process of changing sex to become a man. Although she is still a ‘typical nine-year-old girl’ who likes to sing along to Rihanna and play with dolls, Jessica still has ‘ups and downs’. The youngster worries about one day growing a beard or a moustache and has already started requesting drugs that will prevent it. Ella told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: ‘She has been having nightmares – that she is going to die a man, that she is going to have a beard.’ A second girl who was born a boy, identified by the BBC as Lily, is seven and went to school wearing a skirt for the first time a year ago. Advertisement

Children and their parents talk to psychologists, psychiatrists and experts at the North London clinic as part of consultations.

Poppy, now nine, has made the transition from a boy to a girl.

She said: 'I didn't feel right as a boy. When I was little I'd go to a wishing well in my garden and wish I was a girl. I'm so happy now that wish has come true.'

Children who attend the clinic can be given medication but would not be eligible for any gender reassignment surgery until 18.

Hormone blockers can be prescribed to children under 16 which helps to prevent the development of typically male or female features.

Cross-sex hormones can then be given to children at 16 if they wish to continue treatment.

Dr Polly Carmichael (pictured), from the clinic which is part of the Tavistock Centre, said the rise was unprecedented

Doctors at the north London clinic say they treat many more patients who are born female than male.

Statistics how that 65 per cent of patients last year were born female, up from 42 percent in 2009/10.

Dr Carmichael said society was now more tolerant and there was a better general awareness about gender identity issues.

Simon Calvert, of the Christian Institute think-tank, has said that there was 'no way' that three-year-olds were capable of making 'such a life-changing choice'.

Medics say the drugs given to under 16s are only there to give children more time to discover who they are as they grow up.

Mr Calvert said: ‘The fact that children as young as three are transitioning gender proves this is to do with adult political ambitions and not with what is best for the children.

‘There is no way that a three-year-old is capable of making such a life-changing choice.

‘What we will see in years to come are young adults whose lives have been ruined because their parents and doctors who should have known better told them they needed to transition gender when they were just going through a childhood phase.’

Tavistock is the country’s only NHS facility for transgender children. About 80% of its patients are between 13-17 years of age.