California must pay for the gender reassignment surgery of a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in a state prison, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times said.

Her constitutional rights entitle Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, born Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy, to the procedure, which will cost as much as $100,000; the inmate has identified as a woman since the 1990s and has suffered severe dysphoria -- or dissatisfaction with her life -- due to her natural-born gender, U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar noted.

"The weight of the evidence demonstrates that for Norsworthy, the only adequate medical treatment" is sexual reassignment surgery, the judge added.

The Department of Corrections had originally denied the procedure because of a "blanket policy barring (sex reassignment surgery) as a treatment for transgender inmates," Tigar said in her ruling. He ordered the agency to "take all of the actions reasonably necessary to provide Norsworthy sex reassignment surgery as promptly as possible."

If the surgery takes place, it will be the first in state prison history, Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for California Corrections Health Care Services, told the Los Angeles Times. Nevertheless, the Department of Corrections is considering appealing Tigar's ruling, the newspaper noted.

The California agency is pointing to practical problems that might result from the procedure, the Associated Press reported: Norsworthy might face violence if she remained in a men's prison, while her history of domestic violence complicates a move to a women's facility.

A similar case that originated three years ago in Massachusetts, meanwhile, is still making its way through the U.S. courts system, the Washington Post recalled.

That year, a federal judge had ordered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to provide gender reassignment surgery for a transgender inmate, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling late last year. The case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, the newspaper noted.

In other states, courts have ordered hormone treatments, psychotherapy and other treatments but not surgery, the AP added.