At 16, she undertook extensive psychological assessment from independent experts before she was cleared for, and undertook, gender reassignment surgery. Her competency and full knowledge of all the implications was clear.
This would likely be with Dr Norman Spack (USA) who prescribed the 'puberty blockers' & cross sex hormones.
Daily Mail interview with Susie Green
(extract)
Then, after being treated in the U.S. with hormone blockers to delay the onset of male puberty when she was 12 — the treatment was not then available for children her age in the UK — Jackie underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand on her 16th birthday.
a person standing on a snow covered slope: Susie, who was working as an IT manager and was by then a divorced mum of four, re-mortgaged their home in Leeds to raise the £13,500 to pay for Jackie’s lower body surgery© Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited Susie, who was working as an IT manager and was by then a divorced mum of four, re-mortgaged their home in Leeds to raise the £13,500 to pay for Jackie’s lower body surgery
‘Dr Suporn Watanyusakul, the surgeon, was regarded as the best in the world in his field,’ says Susie. And Jackie made history as the youngest person in the world ever to undergo the procedure.
Susie, who was working as an IT manager and was by then a divorced mum of four, re-mortgaged their home in Leeds to raise the £13,500 to pay for Jackie’s lower body surgery.
Over the preceding four years she had also spent around £20,000 on hormone treatment, blood tests, psychological assessments, therapy and travel to the U.S., where paediatric endocrinologist Dr Norman Spack treated Jackie at his clinic for transgender children." (continues)
www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/pregnancy-parenting/my-child-wouldn%E2%80%99t-be-here-today-if-she-hadn%E2%80%99t-gone-from-jack-to-jackie-defiant-mum-whose-harrowing-story-inspired-anna-friels-transgender-drama-butterfly-praises-show-which-critics-say-is-just-crude-propaganda/ar-BBOp5c5
see also
This documentary about Jackie Green's quest to win a beauty pageant (aged 18) is really worth watching:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkWv9cbda4c
In the documentary above it is important to be aware of the role that Dr Spack played in influencing and impacting both Susie & Jackie Green.
He has talked about how he deliberately prescribed cross sex hormone so that Jackie would not reach her natural height.
He is seen talking with Jackie Green and thanking her as she has helped his work. Susie Green also talks about how Dr Spack absolutely affirmed her child's belief at a very difficult time for the family & how important this relationship was.
His influence on the family as well as Mermaids charity is considerable and seems yet to gain much attention
From Daily Mail 2016:
'The woman who used to be a boy is now at the heart of a controversy over children as young as nine given drugs to change sex'
(extract)
"Scientific research on the impact of the hormone treatments on a young body is sparse. Some parents nevertheless ignore the NHS age rules and buy the hormones online or take their child to private clinics in the UK, the U.S., Holland or Germany.
Helen Webberley, a GP in Wales, has set up a gender clinic where a ‘handful’ of children have been put on cross-sex hormones, including a 12-year-old boy who was born a girl. According to Dr Webberley, this child had been on ‘blockers’ since the age of nine and did not want to wait until 16 to bring on his male puberty.
"The evangelist-in-chief for early medical intervention is 73-year-old Dr Norman Spack, a paediatric endocrinologist at the Boston Children’s Hospital in America. He is also the guiding light of Mermaids and a friend of both Susie Green and Dr Webberley.
He wants children who identify as transgender to routinely be given hormone-blocking drugs around the onset of puberty, and then move to high doses of hormones to change their sex, after which they can consider surgery.
The Spack philosophy is that age limits are arbitrary and often cruel. ‘Why wait?’ is his mantra. He says he has put ‘about 200 children’ onto hormone blockers, and claims 100 per cent have gone on to take cross-sex hormones because ‘no one changes their mind’
But other medics, such as Dr James Barrett, a consultant psychiatrist at London’s Charing Cross gender identity clinic, warns of the dangers of starting irreversible treatment too early."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3973036/Jackie-Green-heart-controversy-children-young-nine-given-drugs-change-sex.html
There is a clip somewhere (not sure if it was the TedTalk?)of Susie Green in conversation with Dr Spack where he happily talks of deliberately restricting Jackie Green's height because she would have been 'too tall' for a woman.