A former married man now living as a woman in the North-East has failed in a High Court bid to amend her birth certificate to reflect her change of sexual identity.

A judge told Paula Wilhemina Ryder, 53, that the law currently did not allow such an amendment.

But Mr Justice Lightman, sitting in London, offered Ms Ryder some hope when he added that Parliament might one day alter the law "so as to permit the (birth) register to be amended to record a subsequent change of sex".

Ms Ryder, from Henknowle, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, had asked for permission to seek a judicial review of the Registrar General's refusal to allow any alteration to her birth certificate.

She wanted either to be described on her certificate as female after undergoing gender reassignment surgery, or at least to have some marginal note added to the certificate reflecting the fact that she was living as a woman.

Rejecting her application, the judge upheld the Registrar's argument that her case was unarguable because "the register of births is a historical register of fact".

During a recent hearing, Sally Bradley QC, representing Ms Ryder, argued that the Registrar's approach amounted to a breach of human rights and was "outmoded and simply doesn't reflect the way in which society has moved over the last 30 years".

In a written statement to the judge, Ms Ryder described the "distress and confusion" she had suffered from childhood over her gender identity.

Right from birth the question of which sex she belonged to was ambiguous. The midwife at her birth considered her to be male, and she was subsequently registered as male and named Paul.

Ms Ryder said in her statement: "I was brought up as a male, but I and my family became aware of my feminine characteristics, which I began to display at an early age.

"Throughout my childhood, the characteristics became more pronounced. As I matured through adolescence and puberty, I suffered badly from changes which caused me distress and confusion."

For a time, she lived as both male and female and was "rebuffed" when she sought help aged 18 or 19. She then attempted to live exclusively as a male and married in 1981.

Medical tests revealed she suffered from Klinefelter's syndrome, which produces an abnormal cluster of chromosomes. She noticed, while still married, bodily changes which created a more feminine appearance.

Ms Ryder's wife died in 1994. She then changed her name by deed poll and began treatment which led to gender reassignment surgery in October 1998.

She said: "I live fully as female and have the appearance of a woman. I wish to have a complete identity as a female.