A trans influencer and BBC voice actress has vowed to hire her GP after she was refused hormone treatment.
In a series of now-deleted, profanity-laden videos on Instagram, Charlie Craggs told how the experience left her speechless, angry and feeling helpless.
Craggs, who voiced Cleo Proctor in the BBC audio drama Doctor Who: Redacted, recently moved from London to an undisclosed area in the countryside where she bought a cottage with her mother.
The trans activist, who described herself as “the Grinch of the trans community”, told her 64,000 followers that her new GP would not prescribe the female sex hormone oestrogen.
Trans women, who are biologically male, take the hormone to help their bodies better match their gender identity. Promotes breast growth and redistributes body fat, giving the trans woman more feminine curves. The drug can also inhibit the growth of muscle and facial hair, although the effectiveness with which it combats the latter may vary depending on the patient.
Charlie Craggs when he attended the final celebration of “The Crown” in London in December
Asking her GP to prescribe the medication, Ms Craggs wrote: “Please don’t make my life harder than it already is.”
In the Instagram video, Ms Craggs said the unnamed GP would suffer consequences for delaying the decision and not for prescribing her hormones, saying: “You may be able to turn me away ladies on duty, but you are not allowed to be incompetent, so if I can “I will not get medical care that no one in my vicinity can get because I am bringing you all down.”
Craggs, who is in his early 30s, accused his doctor, whom he did not name, of denying him a prescription because he said they did not know “how to treat trans people.”
“The GP at the practice told me… basically, ‘we’re not going to prescribe your hormones’ which I’ve been taking for 10 years,” she said in the video on Instagram. which only lasted 24 hours before being automatically deleted.
“I’ve jumped through every hoop I’ve ever had to get to them and now the person at the end of the chain, the GP, all they have to do is press a button and prescribe them is say ‘Hmm, we’re not going to do this”.
‘The Gender Identity Clinic, which is part of the NHS, has literally sent her letters saying “please put Mrs Craggs on that much estrogen”, that’s all they have to do.
‘Read the letter and prescribe me 6 mg of estrogen, you don’t have to perform a sex change on me.’
Craggs, who first came to public prominence in a BBC Three documentary called Transitioning Teens, said the GP did this despite her informing them who she was.
“I’m the Grinch of the trans community,” he said.
“They know it too because I said on the phone, ‘I’m Charlie Craggs and I have a Wikipedia page.’
Craggs said the GP only informed him of his decision when he ran out of his previous supply of hormones.
“My appointment with them was on January 31 three weeks ago and during the appointment I said ‘we’re not really sure, we’ll get back to you in two days,'” he said.
“It was like three weeks before I heard from them, I literally had to chase them every week and never heard back.”
And the year before when she attended the Glamor Women of the Year Awards 2022 in London.
Pictured, left to right, Doctor Who: censored writer Juno Dawson, former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker and actress Charlie Craggs.
Mrs Craggs added: “You may be able to turn me down as ladies-in-waiting, but you can’t be incompetent.”
“So if I can’t get medical care, no one in my vicinity will be able to because I’m bringing them all down.”
Craggs also published some of the correspondence between her team of gender advisors and the GP urging them to prescribe oestrogen.
It details how the hormone treatment has helped prevent hair loss and promote growth and how the team is not concerned about the main “adverse effect” of the drug, erectile dysfunction, as it is “not considered problematic.”
Ms Craggs added her own plea to this correspondence to her GP, writing “please don’t make my life more difficult than it already is.”
He published the letters with the text ‘Why do I pay taxes? Having to BEG for my medication that I am legally entitled to.’
In response to her battle, Mrs Craggs has promised to start campaigning on the issue.
“I’m going to start campaigning because if I, the fucking Grinch of the trans community, can feel like this and be treated like this, I’m scared to think what the less self-confident fucking trans babies are going through,” he claimed.
Mrs Craggs previously launched a fundraising to give free self-defence lessons to trans people after he was spat at in a transphobic attack in London in a video that went viral.
UK regulations mean a GP has the right to refuse to issue a prescription for a patient, even if it comes from a team of specialists, as in Ms Craggs’ case.
Under British law, it is the prescriber of a medicine who becomes legally responsible for supplying it and, by extension, for any possible adverse reactions.
In practice, this type of situation usually occurs in specialized areas of medicine where specialist doctors ask GPs to give them powerful medications that they may not be familiar with.
Ms Craggs first came to public prominence in a BBC Three documentary called Transitioning Teens.
Typically, when this happens, the patient is referred back to their specialist team, who usually have an alternative means of providing medications.
Advice issued by doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, and cited by GPs, makes clear that such refusals can vary between GPs.
It says: ‘Each GP will make prescribing decisions based on what they are or are not prepared to take clinical responsibility for.
‘Some doctors may have special training or knowledge in a particular area of medicine, allowing them to prescribe and monitor a drug comfortably, something that many GPs would not have.
‘Clearly, a GP must be aware of their limitations as well as their abilities, and must ensure that they do not prescribe beyond their knowledge or ability to ensure patient safety.
“Primary physicians are not required to provide all possible medical services to their patients, only those for which they have been contracted, and these contracting arrangements may vary by practice.”
MailOnline has contacted Ms Craggs for comment.
He did not mention the GP involved in his care in his social media posts.