The number of children in the UK wanting a sex change in 2012 saw an increase of 50 per cent compared to the previous year, according to The Times newspaper.

Figures reported in The Times show that last year 208 children were referred to specialist clinics, up from 139 in the previous year.

The news comes as the Government here is proposing legislation which would allow people to change the sex registered on their birth certificates and other official documents without having to undergo “sex change” operations.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has recently issued guidelines urging services in the UK to work better so that children can have the operation quickly when they turn 18.

A dissenting voice came from Professor Chris Hyde, a medical professor from the University of Exeter, who said: “While no doubt great care is taken to ensure that appropriate patients undergo gender reassignment, there’s still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatised – often to the point of committing suicide.”

Professor Kevan Wylie, who led the development of the new guidelines, said there has been a “seismic shift in attitudes” towards sex change therapy.

He said: “Among adolescents there are an increasing number of referrals because the internet and social media mean people are aware of and understand their symptoms and are then looking for help.”

He said most clinics are increasingly seeing young people, and the issue is “more prevalent than people perceive it to be”.

Prof Wylie said there is “quite a lot of evidence that people do well if they transition early because they can get on with their life.

However, It was reported last year that Britain’s youngest sex change patient decided to revert back to living as a man having taken hormone injections to make him look like a woman.

The 18-year-old was scheduled to go through with a sex change at the beginning of this year.

Here, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton published the the Gender Recognition Bill 2013 in July.  

Under the proposed legislation applicants will have to make a statutory self-declaration by the applicant that they intend to live permanently in the new gender, instead of having to specify that they have been living with their “acquired gender” for a specific period of time prior to their application, as was originally recommended

Applicants will also not be required to undergo a ‘sex change’ operation.

Instead, they will merely be required to supply validation by the primary treating physician that the person has transitioned or is transitioning to the acquired gender.

Applicants must also be over 18 and they must not be in a subsisting marriage or civil partnership.

The bill sets out that a person whose gender has been legally recognised would be entitled to marry a person of the opposite sex, or to enter a civil partnership with a person of the same sex.

Other countries have different requirements. For example, Germany requires that a person undergo a sex change operation before their official documentation will be changed.

The proposed Irish law will be modeled on the UK law which is among the most liberal in Europe.

Minister Burton said she was “delighted” to publish this General Scheme of the Bill

She said that the legislation showed “that this Government is prepared to resolve issues left unaddressed for far too long”.