Ritchie Herron lived as a woman for five years and is suing the NHS for pressuring him into the ‘biggest mistake’ of his life. While battling mental health issues, strangers on the internet said he was trans. The NHS clinic he visited didn’t take his mental health crisis into account or counsel him about the impact of ‘sex swap’ surgery. The gender clinic diagnosed ‘transsexualism’ after two 30-minute appointments and prescribed testosterone-suppressing drugs. They ignored family concerns when they warned doctors ‘Ritchie was on strong antidepressants and had many complex issues’. Ritchie was then asked if he wanted genital surgery. Although uncertain, he said yes because ‘having surgery would make therapy available to him.’ The following year he had irreversible surgery and immediately regretted his decision saying, ‘Transition is being sold on a mass scale. It’s sinister. I’m proof the whole system must become far more robust. How many more people are there out there like me?’