A federal judge has ruled that a transgender inmate can receive hormone treatments in prison after she argued that she suffered a medical setback when her treatments were stopped.
According to the Associated Press, Antione Lee, who goes by the name Whitney Lee, had experienced facial hair growth and depression once the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in Ohio abruptly halted the treatments in February 2012.
Lee, who is housed with men at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, had undergone continuous hormone therapy since 1999. She is serving a three-year sentence for forgery and theft convictions in Hamilton County, AP reports.
Lee, 36, began dressing as a woman as a teenager and has been living as a woman since she was 18. She had previously received the treatments at home, in federal prison and in the Hamilton County Justice Center, according to a request for an emergency order filed by the Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice & Policy Center. Lee's regimen included estrogen that was approved by prison authorities while she was incarcerated in 2009 and 2010, the request said.
According to the request, once Lee's treatments stopped, she began to lose breast tissue, her skin became coarser and she began growing facial hair, among other effects. She was also placed on suicide watch and was irritable and angry, AP reports.
"Deprivation of hormone treatment wreaks havoc on Ms. Lee's physical and mental health and puts her life in danger," said the request for the resumption of treatments.
Read more at the Associated Press.