Some patients of Wales' only transgender clinic discovered their operations were called off while they were in hospital, a health board has said.

Last week NHS officials announced all surgery commissioned by the Welsh Gender Service was being "paused" over concerns about the number of referrals, and whether they were all appropriate.

The NHS committee responsible said the pause had been needed for "urgent clinical assurance work".

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which hosts the clinic, said it was "truly sorry" for the impact on patients and families.

One patient who had waited five years for their own surgery said they were "heartbroken" at the last-minute decision.

The move was welcomed by politicians from Reform UK and the Conservative Party, while a message posted to governing party Plaid Cymru's official Instagram account called for it to be reversed.

One patient, Sion Jewell, had been due to have surgery to remove their breasts and had packed to go to hospital, only to be told in a phone call 24 hours before it that it had been called off.

The 29-year-old from Anglesey, who is biologically female, had waited five years from their initial GP referrals and the surgery had been postponed twice already for mental health reasons.

"When I found out I was heartbroken - I was distraught and completely disheartened," they said.

Sion said they had needed the surgery to "feel right in my body", and said gender dysphoria was a pain like "nothing imaginable".

"I feel as if I am playing a part... in this body. I am wearing someone else's skin."

They said it had felt like transgender people were "seen as second class citizens", and they were worried that more transgender people would take their own lives as a result of the decision.

They added: "If this was for any other operation, hip, cancer treatment, we would be celebrating right now. Why aren't we celebrating our referrals?"

The Welsh Gender Service had been asked to pause referrals last week while a review was carried out.

The decision was taken by the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (NWJCC) - a body which represents all the Welsh health boards.

Last Monday a subcommittee of the NWJCC heard concerns that the Welsh Gender Service had higher rates of surgical referrals than seen in comparable services in England.

They also had concerns "regarding referral appropriateness".

As well as surgery being paused, referrals and assessments are also now on hold.

An investigative journalist who has been looking into the Welsh Gender Service for several months said that referrals from the service had been "out of whack" with the rest of the UK.

Nick Wallis's work had included analysing statistics in the public domain via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, and wrote on his blog that the service had referred adult patients at "three to four times the rate per head of population than other UK clinics".

He told BBC Wales: "You could see immediately that the Welsh Gender Service was referring hundreds of patients over the years 2024 and 2025 for either masculinising genital surgery, feminising genital surgery or chest surgeries.

"The numbers were evidently way out of whack with the number of referrals that were happening in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England."

Wallis said he had spoken to one woman who had been "worried sick about her child", and who said the gender service had not looked into any "of his comorbidities".

"They didn't take account of the fact that he was severely autistic, he didn't have a proper mental health assessment, and she knows her son, and she says that he needs proper care," Wallis said.

"And she was very, very concerned about the way the Welsh Gender Service made her feel like the enemy for raising these questions."

Referrals and surgeries were immediately paused after the meeting last Monday, which Wallis said suggested "that someone has seen something very serious".

Asked about FOI data obtained by Wallis last week, the NWJCC said it had been "reviewing more recent data from 2025-26 and undertaking a broader analysis".

Paul Bostock, chief operating officer at Cardiff and Vale health board, said the request to pause scheduled surgeries and referrals had included contacting NHS England care providers to pause immediate surgeries.

"Some patients were informed that their planned surgery would need to be paused while in hospital preparing," he said.

"Surgery can be an important and deeply personal part of a person's care and journey. We are truly sorry for the significant impact this will have had on patients and their loved ones."

Plaid Cymru, which runs Wales' government after its election victory in May, posted a statement on its Instagram page from one of its Welsh Parliament members who questioned the rationale for the decision.

Matthew Jones, member of the Senedd (MS) for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, said: "So what if Welsh gender-affirming care referrals are higher than the rest of the UK?"

He said Wales was the "last bastion of dignity" and he was "disappointed" that the Welsh Gender Service had to succumb to "external pressure".

He added: "We must see this pause on surgery lifted as soon as possible."

Although the Plaid Cymru government runs the Welsh NHS, the decision to pause surgeries was taken by the arm's-length NWJCC rather than ministers.

Asked if Jones's statement reflected government policy, a Welsh government spokesperson said Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor "understands the concerns of people affected by this decision".

The spokesperson said the health minister expected the health board and the NWJCC "to provide appropriate support and to take forward any necessary action as a priority".

Dan Thomas, Reform's Welsh leader, said "sensible-minded people in Wales" would be pleased at the pause.

He added there was "still more to do to ensure that there is a comprehensive review of the service".

Natasha Asghar, Welsh Conservative shadow health minister, had earlier called for a review of the service and said cancelling surgeries during it "is absolutely the right thing to do".

The NWJCC was asked by BBC Wales last week for more information after Monday's meeting and what concerns it held about inappropriate referrals, but was told patients had needed to be informed first.

It did not elaborate on its reasoning when they released their first statement on the cancellation on Tuesday, but said it had paused referrals "while urgent clinical assurance work is carried out".

"This is a precautionary and clinically-led step to ensure that referrals for gender surgery are supported by robust quality, safety and clinical governance arrangements," it said.

"We recognise that this pause may be worrying for patients and their families and the uncertainty for people waiting for care," the JCC said, adding patients affected "are being contacted directly".