Sex reassignment surgery could also be banned for minors.

Reacting to the report, Ypomoni, a French parents’ group, said: “We welcome this return to reason.”

Maud Vasselle, a mother whose daughter underwent gender transition treatment, told Le Figaro: “A child is not old enough to ask to have her body altered.

“My daughter just needed the certificate of a psychiatrist, which she obtained after a one-hour consultation. But doctors don’t explain the consequences of puberty blockers,” she added.

“My daughter didn’t realise that life wasn’t going to be so easy with all these treatments… She was a brilliant little girl but now she’s failing at school. And she is far from having found the solution to her problems.”

Shocking and ideological

Transgender activists and certain health professionals expressed alarm at the report.

Clément Moreau, the clinical psychologist and coordinator of the mental health unit of the association Espace Santé Trans (Trans Health Space), said the report was “shocking” and called the move “ideological”.

“Using blockers if necessary or hormones before coming of age reduces the rate of suicidality, depression and anxiety,” he added.

The French report comes after the NHS banned children from receiving puberty blockers on prescription earlier this month.

France’s health regulation body, the Haute Autorité de Santé, was already examining a similar move.

The LR senators want to accelerate the process following the report.

Citing British, Swedish and American studies, the report said that the number of children identifying themselves as trans has exploded over the past decade.

One hospital in Paris receives around 40 new requests from minors every year, with 16 per cent of those under the age of 12 and the report points out that many suffer from other issues.

A quarter of the children seen at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital for gender dysphoria have dropped out of school, 42 per cent have been victims of harassment, and 61 per cent have experienced an episode of depression. One in five has attempted suicide.

Their conclusions are in line with those of British experts called in to investigate London’s Tavistock clinic over its use of mass gender reassignment surgery on minors.

David Bell. a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, found that a third of the children consulted at the Tavistock suffered from autistic disorders, and many were victims of family violence or had difficulty in accepting or expressing homosexuality, yet they were rushed into gender transition regardless.