Comedian Jo Brand has said it would be a 'mistake' to let children decide if they are transgender before the age of 18.

The Have I Got News For You panellist, 61, said that if one of her daughters identified as transgender she would be 'open' to the idea, but would want them to explore their options before acting on it.

The former psychiatric nurse, who has been married to Bernie Bourke for more than 20 years, also noted that mental health problems are higher among people with gender dysphoria.

She told the Sunday Times Magazine: 'I would be open to the general idea of it. But I also feel younger kids are at risk of making the decision too early, and to encourage them to make it any younger than maybe 18 — 20, even, seems young to me — is a mistake, really.

Scroll down for video

Comedian Jo Brand (pictured at The World's Greatest Quiz in September) has said that it would be a 'mistake' to let children decide if they are trans before the age of 18

'So I would just try to explore it profoundly before they went ahead. For example, you do read that mental health problems among people who have gender issues are much higher, and so I would prefer there to be a very long opportunity for counselling, shall we say.'

Brand also argued that the debate around transgender rights has become too heated, and that people on both sides of the argument are resorting to hurling insults at each other.

She added: 'Everyone's so angry. Trans people feel they're being got at, women feel vulnerable, and actually the issue is it's not really about either of them.

'It's about a third group posing as transgender people to get at women.

Brand, whose daughters are in their late teens, said previously that women are scared of entering the transgender debate for fear of public backlash (pictured in May)

Brand, pictured on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2013, also said that she would be 'open' to the idea if one of her daughters came out as trans but would want them to explore their options

'So, actually, it's not making moral judgments about trans people, it's not pointing the finger. But people are just so angry, it's almost impossible to have the debate.'

Earlier this week the mother-of-two, whose daughters Maisie and Eliza are in their late teens, said that women are scared of entering the transgender debate for fear of public backlash.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Brand said: 'A lot of people feel very wary about talking about the topic.

'A lot of women feel if they say anything at all there is a kind of knee-jerk reaction of anger which has nothing to do with the content of what they said… and because they feel frightened of being threatened. I mean, who wouldn't be?'