A businessman who once led a takeover bid for Sheffield United football club has reported the UK's best-known expert on transsexualism to the General Medical Council, claiming he should never have been given a sex change, the Guardian has learned.

Charles Kane, formerly known as Sam Hashimi, claims that consultant psychiatrist Russell Reid, a specialist in gender identity disorder (GID), referred him for gender reassignment surgery when he had only lived as a woman for a month - in breach of international standards of care.

Mr Kane, who has reverted to living as a man after briefly being known as Samantha, said: "It was certainly not the right course of action for me. It was intolerable. I had to go through several operations to try to repair the damage that had been done."

He first saw Dr Reid in 1997 after "a severe mental breakdown" caused by the break-up of his marriage. He claims that Dr Reid referred him for surgery after he had lived as a woman for only 30 days, and a sex change was performed just four months later.

The 43-year-old Iraqi-born British designer and property developer hit the headlines in 1990 with his takeover bid for Sheffield United, and eight years later was considered for the job of the club's chief executive.

The details of his complaint emerged after the GMC decided there was "insufficient cogent and credible prima facie evidence" to suspend Dr Reid from the medical register or impose restrictions on his practice at the first stage of its investigation.

The case was initiated by three other senior consultant psychiatrists, Donald Montgomery, Richard Green and James Barratt, who work at the NHS Charing Cross gender identity clinic in west London. They submitted the cases of 12 of Dr Reid's patients, including Mr Kane, to the GMC for scrutiny, claiming some regretted changing sex.

The council has decided to investigate three cases, and is considering whether to subpoena the case notes of the other nine. The next hearing has been postponed to allow Dr Reid's legal team to respond to Mr Kane's personal complaint.

The investigation has raised concern in the House of Lords about the gender recognition bill, which would allow transsexuals to gain the rights of their acquired gender. The constitutional affairs minister, Lord Filkin, assured peers that the legislation would allow people who had "genuinely made a mistake" in changing sex to revert to their original legal status even if their surgery could not be reversed.

The Charing Cross psychiatrists allege that Dr Reid has repeatedly breached internationally recognised guidelines which lay down "flexible directions" for the treatment of people with GID.

They allege that he has not adhered to the guidelines' minimum eligibility requirements for the prescription of hormones and referrals for genital surgery.

But Dr Reid, a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' gender identity working party, has received support from other experts in the field and more than 150 patients.

Claire MacNab, vice-president of the transgender pressure group Press for Change, said several experts in GID had written to the GMC in Dr Reid's defence, including a surgeon who worked at Charing Cross hospital, a member of the international gender dysphoria board and Professor Louis Gooren, an endocrinologist at Vrije University hospital in Amsterdam.

The international guidance states patients should have been living in their desired gender role for at least three months before being prescribed hormones, or have had at least three months of psychotherapy.

Patients should also have at least of 12 months of hormone therapy and live as their desired gender for the same period before referral for surgery. But the guidelines are not legally binding and may be modified.

The next stage of the GMC inquiry will be a preliminary proceeding committee hearing, which will decide whether Dr Reid should face a full investigation.

The Medical Defence Union, which is representing Dr Reid, said he was unable to comment on specific cases because of his duty of confidentiality and because of the inquiry.

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the matter seemed to be "a dispute between expert colleagues".