The present invention provides a PTC element having a novel structure and suitable for use in a starter circuit for a fluorescent lamp. The polymer PTC element (10) comprises a sheet-like body (1) made of a polymer PTC material, and the first and the second electrodes which are, for example, formed distant from each other on the same sheet surface of the sheet-like body (1) (the first electrodes 3a, 3b and the second electrodes 4a, 4b), wherein a clearance is formed between an inner wall of a through hole (7a, 7b) and a terminal (5a, 5b) as a space which at least partially traverses the sheet-like body (1) in its thickness direction.