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More than 250 people were subjected to painful electric shocks, designed to change their sexual preferences and gender identity, in NHS hospitals between 1965 and 1973, the BBC has discovered.
Three Electric Shock Aversion Therapy (ESAT) survivors have told of physical and lasting psychological pain they experienced as teens at the time. One, Jeremy Gavins, 72, said shocks were so severe he lost consciousness and woke up in hospital three days later.
As a result of the investigation, the BBC understands the government will now investigate historical use of ESAT in the NHS.
The British Psychological Society has abandoned its use of ESAT but conversion practices in the UK are still not illegal.
The three survivors, who were teenagers when they were subjected to the procedure, described the physical agony of the electric shocks and the mental trauma of being labelled "perverts" with a "disease".
Another survivor, Pauline Collier, 80, described her treatment: "He taped electrodes to my arms and gave me a series of shocks. They made me sweat and flinch."
Many of those treated were referred to hospital by their teachers, priests or GP.
Some say they did not give informed consent, and say they were explicitly told not to tell their parents.
The findings have prompted calls for a formal apology from the government and NHS, led by Lord Chris Smith, who was the UK's first openly gay MP.
Electric Shock Aversion Therapy was a form of conversion practice based on associating same-sex attraction with pain.
Patients were strapped to a chair and had electrodes placed on their arm or legs, they were shown images of men or women and then given painful electric shocks, sometimes for up to an hour at a time.
Through the BBC's extensive research, old medical journals and books written by doctors in the 1960s and 70s have been studied to extract the data that mentions the use of this treatment on gay and transgender people.
The records show that while participants were described as volunteers, many were referred by the courts to have the treatment, some were classified as having psychological illnesses, and some were classified as children at the time. One of them was 12 years old.
Survivors told the BBC they were often coerced or threatened by teachers, courts or employers, with expulsion from school or loss of employment.
The largest known trial took place at Crumpsall Hospital, in Manchester, where 73 people were treated under Dr Philip Feldman and Dr Malcolm MacCulloch.
Both doctors are now aged in their 80s. Dr MacCulloch's family said that given his age, he was not in a fit state to respond, and Dr Feldman did not respond to the BBC's letters.
Ms Collier, who was 19 when treated at Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester, said: "You could either get the electric shock immediately as the photograph came up, or you could get it after 30 seconds.
"During that waiting period, you become very anxious and very frightened.
"I reckon I must have had about 20 sessions. Each session involved about, I suppose, a dozen, 12 shocks. It did damage me.
"I was just 19 years old, I was a working class girl, brought up to be obedient and seek approval, particularly male approval. And there were these three important doctors telling me that they could get rid of this thing inside me."
She added: "I don't think they ever said, 'We'll be sitting you in a chair and giving you electric shocks'. I don't remember that. And I think, at the time, I was just so psychologically vulnerable that I just accepted it all."
Mr Gavins, now 72, of Ulverston, was 17 years old when he was referred by his GP to Lynfield Mount Hospital, in Bradford.
"A male nurse came to see me and said, 'Come with me'.
"He said, 'Take all your clothes off and put them in this locker'. I sat on this chair, he fastened a strap around my left hand, and then did the same with my right hand.
"He played with a switch, and I got a pain in my arm. He said, 'Did it hurt?' and I said, 'Yes' and he said, 'Good, it's