Given the stigma and taboos that surround transsexuality the true number of people wishing to undergo gender reassignment could be considerably greater. Whilst medical treatment has improved considerably, employment law has lagged behind. An employer can no longer treat less favourably any person who has undergone, is undergoing, or plans to undergo gender reassignment. Society's attitudes to transsexuality have changed considerable over the last thirty years. Whereas once a transsexual or transvestite would be labelled as a pervert, or worse, today such people are treated more sympathetically.
Discrimination still exists, as it does for most minorities, but times are changing.
The recent BBC TV series Paddington Green followed the story of Jackie, a transsexual who worked as a prostitute to earn the money to pay for her operation. In another recent case which received widespread coverage, a vicar who underwent a sex change operation returned to her church duties with the support of the majority of her congregation. Neither has the UK government acted to resolve some one the anomalies resulting from gender reassignment, eg the altering of gender in National Insurance records. This is significant as the age at which pension contributions cease is different according to gender. A largely-unrecognized effect of harassment, discrimination and bullying is psychiatric injury .