Hormone treatment for jailed Chelsea Manning

Hormone treatment for gender reassignment has been approved for Chelsea Manning, the former intelligence analyst convicted of espionage for sending classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.

Defence Department officials said the hormone therapy was approved by Colonel Erica Nelson, who is the commandant of the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning has been serving a 35-year sentence.

The treatment would enable the Army private, formerly known as Bradley Manning, to make the transition to a woman. Manning changed her legal name in April 2014. The decision came after a lawsuit was filed in September at the US District Court for the District of Columbia. It alleged Manning, 26, was at a high risk of self-castration and suicide unless she received more focused treatment for gender dysphoria, the sense of being a woman in a man's body. The Army was providing some treatment but not enough, according to the lawsuit, including psychotherapy from a mental health specialist who lacked the qualifications to treat gender dysphoria.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons and many state and local corrections agencies administer hormone therapy to prisoners with gender dysphoria. But Manning is the first transgender military prisoner to have requested such treatment.

Outgoing Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had approved medical treatment in August, but it hadn't started by the time the Manning's lawsuit was filed with the court.

The former intelligence analyst was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offences for sending more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks while working in Iraq. Transgender people are not allowed in the US military, but Manning can't be discharged from the service while serving her sentence.