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A transgender couple have blamed health cuts for foiling their "unusual if not unique" fight for a family.

Adrianne Elson, 47, and her partner, who does not want to be named, have been trying for a baby for several years.

Adrianne said officials had dealt a massive blow to their "long tough battle" for a child by cutting a fertility service offered to transgender patients.

She admitted she was horrified to learn sperm storage was no longer available to her as part of the gender transition process and believes the cuts show "the powers that be do not want us to have children".

Adrianne explained that she met her partner in the waiting room of Northern Ireland's Gender Identity Clinic in South Belfast 2011.

She said "she had given up on relationships" by the time she got her first appointment at the specialist clinic where she hoped to finally fulfil her childhood need to transition into a woman.

She added that she had also given up her dreams of a family because of the impact hormone treatment and surgery would have on her body.

But Adrianne said everything changed when she fell in love with her fellow patient, who was in turn pursuing female to male gender reassignment at the same specialist clinic.

She said: "I absolutely never expected to meet a partner. I had given up on the idea of relationships and parenthood.

"We had met the year beforehand at a transgender support group but it was only when we started going to the clinic that we really clicked.

"We decided to try for a child and had a wedding blessing in 2014."

Doubtful an adoption agency would even consider such an "unusual if not unique" couple, Adrianne said their only hope was natural conception.

This meant making the agonising decision of putting her long-awaited gender reassignment surgery on hold.

She said they had since faced many "emotional challenges", including some hostility within the transgender community, with some suggesting she was "not trans enough for putting parenthood ahead of transition".

She explained it was because of this fear of being judged, or their future children being criticised, that her partner wanted to remain anonymous.

Adrianne added: "We tried for a baby ourselves for a couple of years through natural conception before going back to our doctor who told us we had just a 20 per cent chance of conceiving naturally over the next five years."

Conscious their ages were against them, Adrianne said she decided to pursue sperm storage, which had been previously offered to her at the gender clinic, with a view to undertaking IVF.

She said they were devastated to be told free sperm storage was no longer available as part of the transition process.

She said: "When I first joined the gender reassignment programme this was part of the deal but my understanding is that funding has now been withdrawn.

"I believe clinics in Northern Ireland will only freeze sperm if you have your full fertility treatment with them, but that is not suitable for us because of our age and the limited chance of success.

"That means the only fertility clinic suitable for us is in England. It has all been very stressful and expensive.

"Some may say this is economics, but for me it is eugenics. We feel the powers that be do not want us to have children. Whether that is how it is or not, that is how it feels.

"Trying to start a family for us has been a long tough battle.

"There is an impression that it is the easiest thing to be transgender in Northern Ireland, that you just rock up to a transgender clinic, but nothing could be further from the truth."

Although she accepts she made the decision herself not to pursue gender transition to have a baby, Adrianne believes health professionals could have made the path easier.

She said: "I have had to find everything out for myself every step of the way. It is extremely difficult and can be depressing.

"I know in the grand scheme of things it could be worse, there are children fighting cancer and it would be disingenuous of me to say woe is me. But we are yearning for a family.

"This is a transgender issue because the reason I need this service is because I am waiting to transition.

"Our impression now is that the health service does not want transgender people to reproduce.

"That may sound over the top but when you desperately want a family that is how it feels."

TrangenderNI executive director Ellen Murray said she understood funding was no longer available for trans people who need fertility care.

She said this was part of a wider problem for the community with around 80 people needing an appointment at the gender clinic, on a waiting list that "had not moved all year".

She said: "From February this year patients were told about the withdrawal of this gamete storage service.

"The majority of people who go through transition will want fertility-related care and were are finding an increasing number of people must go privately."

A Health and Social Care NI spokeswoman said: "The HSCB is finalising the updated eligibility criteria for all people seeking fertility treatment in the Regional Fertility Centre taking account of the NICE guidance.

"When these amended eligibility criteria are finalised they will be made available."

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