Transgender headteacher tells of 55-year struggle and barbaric therapy in attempt to cure her as a teenagerBy Jessica Haworth, Tom Donnelly
4/4/16
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/transgender-headteacher-tells-55-year-7686968Carolyn Mercer, 68, said she spent the first 55 years of her life "pretending to be a man",
As well as undergoing horrific electro-aversion (electric shock) therapy as a teenager in an attempt to "cure" her gender dysphoria.
The barbaric therapy was supposed to suppress her feelings of wanting to transition from a woman to a man, but left her severely traumatised.
She said: "I was taken into a darkened room, strapped to a chair and given electric shock treatment.
"The strategy was to make me associate what I wanted to be with pain.
"It took me 40 years to stop shivering at the thought of that treatment.
