 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bureau of Prisons has rejected the Army's request to accept the transfer of national security leaker Pvt. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pte Manning has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria 
 
 The US military will begin treatment for US document leaker Chelsea Manning for her gender-identity condition. The Bureau of Prisons has rejected the Army’s request to accept the transfer... (Associated Press) 
 
 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved the Army's recommendation to keep Manning in military custody and start a rudimentary level of gender treatment, a defense official said Thursday. Pte Manning has been diagnosed by military doctors with gender dysphoria, the sense of one's gender being at odds with the sex assigned at birth. Nancy Hollander argued the military had an obligation to treat the soldier's "transgender issues", and she would not be safe if transferred to a civilian prison for treatment there. Manning's treatment request was the first by a transgender military inmate, and it set up a dilemma for the department of how to treat a soldier for a diagnosed disorder without violating long-standing military policy. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pte Manning changed her name from Bradley in April 
 
 In April, a judge granted her petition to change her name legally from Bradley to Chelsea, and according to a court filing by Pte Manning's legal team, a military doctor at Fort Leavenworth had approved a treatment plan by November 2013. Pte Manning will not be discharged from the military until she has finished her prison term.
– The private formerly known as Bradley Manning is about to become the first person ever given gender reassignment treatment by the US military. The federal Bureau of Prisons has rejected the Army's request to transfer Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison, and defense officials say Manning will instead receive "rudimentary" gender treatment while in military custody, reports the AP, which notes that initial treatments could include allowing Manning to wear female undergarments. It's not clear when or if Manning will be transferred from an all-male prison to a female one. "It has been almost a year since we first filed our request for adequate medical care," Manning's lawyer says. "I am hopeful that when the Army says it will start a 'rudimentary level' of treatment that this means hormone replacement therapy." The treatment will raise a few issues for the military, the BBC notes. The Pentagon bans transgender people from serving openly, but Manning will not be discharged from the military until she finishes her sentence. She was sentenced to 35 years for passing classified documents to WikiLeaks and will be eligible for parole in about six years.