An international guide on transgender health that no longer includes minimum age thresholds for so-called “gender-affirming surgery” such as double mastectomies and operations on the genitals is being studied by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

However, the Department of Health told The Irish Times that any potential change in the Irish model of care depends on the outcome of discussions with the HSE about the new recommendations.

The updated edition of the Standards of Care of the US-based World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH) initially contained recommended age thresholds for surgical and pharmaceutical sex change treatments.

These included 14 years of age for the administration of cross-sex hormones, 15 years for “chest masculinisation” (mastectomies), and 17 for metoidioplasty (a type of ‘penis creation’), orchidectomy (the removal of the testicles), vaginoplasty (the construction of a ‘vagina’) and hysterectomy (the removal of the womb).

However, the updated WPATH edition published earlier this month was amended hours after it was posted online, with WPATH saying the age thresholds originally included were being removed as they had been published “in error”.