SOMETHING deeply concerning is happening in China and it is having an effect both emotionally and physically.

In hospitals around the country, some of China’s gay population are undergoing an outdated, dangerous therapy in order to try and rid them of their sexual desires. The treatment is shocking, literally.

On Tuesday’s Dateline program, airing on SBS at 9.30pm, reporter Shaunagh Connaire helps uncover how many hospitals are disregarding a ruling that bans ex-gay shock therapy. What she finds is difficult to watch.

China stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental illness 15 years ago. But at Tianjin Mental Health Hospital south of Beijing, not only do doctors believe it’s a mental illness, they believe they have the cure.

“When these urges arise, you can take a cold shower or go jogging to release the excess hormones,” a psychiatrist at the hospital tells activist John Shen.

If that doesn’t work, there are more “extreme” treatments available.

“It’s a small electric rod. When you have these urges, you shock yourself with the rod. Then you know you should avoid these urges,” the woman tells him.

The investigation includes hidden camera footage at another hospital in Tianjin where a gay man allows doctors to treat him.

Electrodes are attached to his head, which goes numb as the voltage is increased. The man is told the treatment will “rebalance his nervous system”, all for just $800 per session. He’ll need to come back for more, doctors tell him.

“Your current conditioned reflex is when you see the same sex you feel love,” a doctor explains to a gay patient. “Now what I want to make you feel is scared.

“Can you bear this kind of pain? How long can you bear it? If you can really bear with it then you can change.”

Ex-gay or “conversion therapy” was practised widely decades ago in China and around the world. Australian man Anthony Venn-Brown told news.com.au earlier this year that in 1971, when he was desperate to change his sexuality, he joined an ex-gay ministry, underwent an exorcism and even married a woman.

Simon Tinkler said he tried everything to change, too.

“I went to programs, fasted, went without food. I went 21 days without food at one point. I was thinner but I certainly wasn’t any less gay.”

See more on Dateline Tuesday night at 9.30pm on SBS.