When Freddy McConnell began transitioning from female to male about six years ago he was told he would never have children as a result of the testosterone supplements he would be taking.

But as the remarkable documentary Seahorse records, the doctors were quite wrong.

“There is no evidence that testosterone therapy affects fertility at all,” the 33-year-old says from his home in the English seaside town of Deal. “When you’re told that you can’t have kids, you go through a grieving process – and many people have gone through that process unnecessarily. Or they’ve had a hysterectomy because that’s the pathway you’re on. It’s pretty scandalous.”

McConnell is now the proud father of a male toddler (he won’t reveal the boy’s precise age, or name, because he wants to shield him from the public eye as much as possible), delivered in a birthing pool with the aid of a midwife and in the unflinching presence of director Jeanie Finlay’s camera.