[DemolitionRed]

What I don't understand is, my sister and her husband have recently been informed by the NHS that getting breast implants for cosmetic reasons (for their daughter) may well be rejected and that my niece may have a battle ahead of her.

My niece has just reached an age where she is body conscious but because she lost her pituitary gland through a brain tumour, she hasn't produced the natural hormones to make her grow or her body develop like a woman. Synthetic hormones have made her grow and made her feel like a young woman but she's still totally flat chested and has boyish hips. Now that she feels like a woman, something she wouldn't feel without these synthetic hormones, she's become very self conscious. She has been told that once she's considered 'fully developed' they may consider breast implants on the NHS but she would have to go through at least a year of therapy about her mental state prior to surgery ever being considered.

Her parents have now told her that they will pay for her to go privately when the time is right, because they don't want make her beg the NHS for something that surely she should be offered on the NHS?

There are definitely exceptions for this procedure to be carried out by the NHS, but it seems that depending on which part of the country you live in, you will be treated differently.