The Family Court has granted two 16-year-olds permission to take gender reassignment hormones that will permanently transform their bodies and put them at high risk of serious health problems, finding that the dangers are outweighed by the crippling psychological trauma of living as the ''wrong gender''.

The teenagers, ''Terry'' and ''Sam'', are suffering from the condition known as gender dysphoria - where a person identifies with a different gender to the one they were born with.

The pair were formally represented and supported by their respective parents, and successfully applied to the court for permission to immediately undertake both stage one and stage two treatment of the condition.

Under the law, people cannot undertake such treatment until the age of 18 without a court order because it is considered that until they reach adulthood they cannot give informed consent for such a transformation.

For Terry - who was born as a female but identifies as a male - the injection of large doses of testosterone will be done with the aim of inducing male puberty, increasing muscle mass, facial hair, deepening of the voice and increased libido.