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When the day finally came for her to start hormone therapy, April Welsh thought it was the start of a new life.

She said she had known from a young age that she was not like other children and keeping it a secret drove her to a mental breakdown.

When she made the brave decision to come out as transgender and start treatment to physically become a woman, April said it almost killed her.

April, 33, said: "I ended up in hospital for two weeks. I thought I was going to die. It was meant to be the key moment of my life but it almost killed me."

(Image: Wildflame Productions)

Growing up in Blackwood in the 1980s, April said she knew from a young age that she was not like other children.

"From the age of four or five I would lock myself in the bathroom and dress female, I just had this constant urge to be myself.

"As cliché as it sounds I thought it was just me, I didn’t know who to talk to or who to explain it to. I had never heard anything about being transgender.

"I didn't want it to be revealed. I thought I would go to prison, I thought I could be rejected by my family."

In school April was a naturally academic student. She was also a keen rugby and football player but constantly worried about others discovering her secret.

(Image: Wildflame Productions)

"I managed to create an alter ego. I used my previous name, and, as much as I knew it wasn’t me, I built this version of myself to fit in with the boys and girls," she recalled.

"They didn’t have a clue. As I was always interested in girls I played the role very well. Looking back I just think how the hell did I manage it? But it was through fear.

"I played football and rugby at a young age but it didn’t last very long. As soon as I started getting involved in something I would retreat as I thought they would know. To go in a locker room - it was horrendous."

As the years went on the pressure began to mount. With no-one to turn to, April's mental health deteriorated before hitting breaking point.

"When I was in my early teens I couldn’t cope, I had a mental breakdown," she said.

"I left school, I didn’t complete my GCSEs as I was so unwell. It all got too much.

"It was devastating because I was always very academic in school, I was an A grade student. But I left school with nothing."

But her saving grace came from an unlikely source - a pub landlord in Blackwood.

April said: "I resigned myself to the fact that I would never tell anyone. Mum knew there was something but she thought I was gay.

"Then I met a gentleman who owned a pub when I must have been 17 or 18. He was a friend of my mum and dad’s and he was gay, I thought he might understand.

"I went to him and explained and he said it was fine. He looked after me for a few years - I could visit and dress like I wanted and not worry about it. It was my outlet."

Despite confiding in one person, however, April was still at odds with who she really was.

During a night out in Cardiff she met a woman who she would have a seven year relationship with.

April would also later become a proud parent to two children - something which spurred her on to come out as transgender.

"After having my son I genuinely thought that would be my ace card. I had always wanted to be a mum and I thought I could go on with life but it was the opposite.

"I remember panicking, thinking I had lied to myself and everyone else. I didn’t want to lie to my children.

"It was my point of no return to come out. How was I supposed to bring him up? What if my children were transgender? The hell I went though - I didn’t want that future for them."

In 2014, things began to gather momentum and April came out as a transgender woman.

She said: "I posted on Facebook in 2014 for the first time and posted a picture of myself. I have a big sense of humour and people thought I was messing about.

"But my babysitter contacted me to say it all made sense. It was a relief - so many people have been lovely."

Overwhelmed by the positive response from those around her, she changed her name by deed poll to April the following year before embarking on hormone replacement therapy.

For April the first steps of the hormone replacement therapy process took her to a clinic in Caerleon in Newport.

After meeting with psychologists, she was referred to the Royal Gwent Hospital where she began to receive oestrogen tablets, and later a stomach implant containing the female sex hormone.

But within months, the excitement of taking her first steps in the right direction were soon overshadowed by the health complications that followed.

April said: "I’m not the only one that has had adverse effects. People don’t understand how dangerous [transitioning] is.

"When you go to the dentist they explain that they will pull out your teeth and they give you instructions and tell you what will happen.

"But for me there was no information, I thought it was bonkers."

Unbeknown to April, her body was rejecting the oestrogen being pumped into her body - in part, she believes, due to the high hormones levels she was first given.

At the same time she was receiving antiandrogen - a drug preventing testosterone.

She said: "They blocked my testosterone so I had nothing in my body.

"I just started feeling odd, I started having headaches. I knew there was bound to be side effects but before I knew it I was collapsing.

"I started feeling giddy, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t watch TV as I would make me dizzy.

"I couldn’t swallow properly, it was like my body was running on empty. I was having panic attacks and I had never had panic attacks before."

As time went on, April's condition continued to worsen. On New Year's Day 2016, she found herself admitted to hospital as her fears about the future grew.

"I had my second injection and I started having seizures, it was happening quite regularly. I would wake up at two or three in the middle of the night and I was in the middle of a seizure. I managed to ring an ambulance to get to me. It was absolutely awful.

"I started losing the eye sight in my left eye and ended up in hospital for two weeks.

"I was on New Year’s Eve and came back with my friends in the taxi. I stuck myself in the shower to bring myself round.

"I thought I was going to die. It was meant to be the key moment of my life but it almost killed me."

(Image: Wildflame Productions)

For April there was no other choice. After years of dreaming, she was forced to gradually wean herself off the oestrogen which was making her so ill.

For 18 months there was nothing she could do but wait to recuperate, while watching the progress she had been making ebb away.

"It was horrendous. My body started changing - I had started developing breasts, my skin had changed - and all of a sudden it started reversing, hair started growing.

"I have PTSD from it as I had to go through the mental trauma."

Today, April is in a better place and her story is now being told in a new TV documentary for S4C called Merch Fel Fi.

Along with her two children, she has the love and support of her partner Kaye after meeting at Pride in Cardiff. And after the disastrous effects of her first hormone therapy, April has now been transferred to a specialist clinic in London and must use a gel form of oestrogen every day.

While things are moving well, and she has not had a seizure for a year and a half, it remains uncertain whether her body will reject the hormone again - which would end any chance of her undergoing reassignment surgery.

However, despite such a daunting prospect, for April the most important thing remains being there for her children.

She said: "I’m content in myself but I have to go through this. I want to see my children grow up so if anything goes wrong I won't do it again. I will just have to accept it."

A spokesperson for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We are very sorry to hear that April has concerns regarding the treatment she has received. We would ask that she makes contact with us directly so we can look into her experience”

April will appear in S4C documentary Merch Fel Fi on May 5 at 9pm.