How would you rate your treatment by the following?

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

This thread/poll is for pre,  post and non-op trans-people[hence why there's up to five voting options]...

If you have been through the system [or are going through the system] how would you rate your treatment[so far] by the above ?

I just realised you only need maximum of three votes...For example Psychologist/psychiatrist [1] Therapist[1] Surgeon/s[1] Oh well whatever  I'm sure you will all work out what's what[fingers crossed]

Metta Zenda

[Colleen Ireland]

I have been blessed to have been seen by some really excellent caregivers. First and foremost, my gender therapist (psychotherapist) Susan Tarshis in Milton, Ontario. She charges $110/hr, and is worth every penny, and more. I'm in the CAMH program in Toronto, and my treatment there has been stellar.  I also now have an excellent primary care physician, who is herself post-op, and is looking after my meds along with everything else. An option to vote for Endocrinologist would have been a good addition to the poll, I have an excellent one of those, also, Dr. James Martin, in London, Ontario.

[Anatta]

I have been blessed to have been seen by some really excellent caregivers. First and foremost, my gender therapist (psychotherapist) Susan Tarshis in Milton, Ontario. She charges $110/hr, and is worth every penny, and more. I'm in the CAMH program in Toronto, and my treatment there has been stellar.  I also now have an excellent primary care physician, who is herself post-op, and is looking after my meds along with everything else. An option to vote for Endocrinologist would have been a good addition to the poll, I have an excellent one of those, also, Dr. James Martin, in London, Ontario.

Kia Ora Colleen,

Thanks, I've just added the endocrinologist to the list, but I afraid you won't be able to add the extra vote...

Kia Ora Sarah,

Thanks for added the names and links of your care-providers, I take it they won't mind going public so to speak...


Metta Zenda

[Colleen Ireland]

 Not at all, they're well known as specializing in trans care, and proud of it.

[eli77]

I'm in the CAMH program in Toronto, and my treatment there has been stellar.

This really surprises me. I guess they've actually started to change seriously? They still have Zucker and Blanchard on staff there, makes me queasy.

[Colleen Ireland]

I guess they've actually started to change seriously? They still have Zucker and Blanchard on staff there, makes me queasy.

Yes, there have been some serious changes there recently.  For one thing, they're moving to be more in line with WPATH SOC, and they've recently shortened their RLE requirement from two years to one.  Dr. Nicola Brown is wonderful, she was one of the two who interviewed me at my first appointment in January.  The other one was Dr. Dickey, who has since retired.  HE was ALSO wonderful, and I was really leery of meeting with him, because I've heard such horror stories, but he was very nice, and very good.  And I've heard the same from at least one other girl (who's now post-surgery).  Anyway, I guess I'd say, don't believe everything bad you hear about that place.  They're actually doing very good work these days.

Another friend of mine had her interview for possible approval for surgery a few weeks ago.  One of the doctors who interviewed her at that time was Dr. McIntosh (sp?).  Now, I've heard VERY good things about him from a number of sources, but she apparently had a very BAD time with him, at least from her perspective.  She was over at my house the night after the appointment, as I had a few friends over for BBQ.  She was VERY stressed about how the interview had gone, she was talking about how she was SURE she'd be refused, and she ended up drinking too much and spending a good part of the evening crying in the bathroom.  Well... this past week she got the word... she's APPROVED.  Just like we all knew she'd be.  Moral of the story:  Even when someone has a bad experience, it might be just their impression of it, or how they felt about the questions that were asked.  It doesn't mean the DOCTOR isn't a good one.

However, yeah, Blanchard gives me the creeps too...

[eli77]

Well, it's good to hear they are improving, though I'm going private for SRS regardless - I'm unwilling to deal with the extra time to get through the waiting lists. Actually, of the two I'd say Zucker is worse even though Blanchard gets more press. Zucker was the one conducting reparative therapy on trans kids - also known as aversion therapy. The same ->-bleeped-<- they used to try to de-gay people. That he's still working and not in jail blows my mind. CAMH's history is kind of horrific.

[Constance]

I have a fantastic therapist who's based in San Francisco: Alexandria Hodes. She's worked with transpersons before, but I'm pretty sure I'm the first one she officially diagnosed with GID. Working with her has been absolutely wonderful. She wrote the letter that I used to start HRT.

For a very good marriage/couples therapist, I can recommend Diane Marquez in Millbrae, CA.

My endocrinologist is Dr. Timothy Offensend, and he's based in San Mateo. He has worked with transpersons before, but I'm the first who's started an HRT regimen with him. Prior to me, he'd done maintenance HRT. As my results have been quite noticeable, I think he really seems to know his stuff.

[ZeldaHeart]

It's nice that most of you have had good treatment from psychiatrists/psychologists.  My therapist raved about a psychiatrist that deals with children/teens when I was 15 years old, and set me up for an appointment with him.  One of the worst experiences of my life.  He asked me questions that EXCLUSIVELY had to do with my sexuality.  I asked him not to tell my mom about my sexuality (liking guys) and he said "What do you mean?  She must already know.  You want to be a girl, so you're attracted to men."  His end diagnosis?  That I was a homosexual that wanted to play the role of a woman in a relationship. 

After that, my mom and I stopped at a grocery store to get food and I just walked around the store in an almost-catatonic state.  He didn't discuss hormones ONE bit or anything.  He really had no knowledge of transgenders/transsexuals/etc.  Then we saw a thing on ABC about a transgender center in Philadelphia and went there and they've been amazing ever since. 

[pebbles]

Never seen a therapist.

Somthing missed out of here is that the NHS process is different Thus most of my contact thus far has been through GP's

Gp1: ->-bleeped-<- complete ->-bleeped-<-.
Gp2: Moderate experience... He did help me but didn't listen like most doctors and was apprently divorced from the reality of my situation.
Gp3: Slow she's Glacically slow and dosen't really have much of a clue about most things but has helped alittle.

Psychatrist Encounter: Moderate... He was a robot, and had some rather outdated methods of sex and gender aswell as transsexuallity and yes towards the end of my psychological assessment he did pop out the HBS scale of how ->-bleeped-<- art tho.

Endocrinologist: This guy was also a massive ->-bleeped-<-. he made very clear he dosen't think the nhs should treat "Pepole like you" and was generally rude and dismissive towards me the only time he opened up at all was when I demonstrated my Medical knowledge and we discussed hormone blockers breifly.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

Pebbles pointed out I had left out the "General Practitioner", so I've just added it to the poll... When I come to think of it, it was my doctor who was my first port of call and my main caregiver at the beginning of my transition-she was really helpful, she also witnessed my name change documents...

Metta Zenda

[El]

My GP was terrible, the first appointment she basically told me to sort it out myself, then i went back with the name of a local gender clinic and she reffered me. The gender specialists were awesome but then the NHS lost my paperwork and now im in limbo

[Felix]

I wish there was a category for the gynecologists, for us ftm's. My GP is intimidated but basically friendly, my therapists have been a little inept but not bigoted, I'm just now meeting the more official psych people but they seem nice so far, my daughter's psychiatrist is incredibly accepting and supportive of my gender identity and transition, I don't have an endocrinologist but my T prescriber is very respectful and helpful...

but my gynecologists have both judged me as a person and neglected my actual health issues because they couldn't see past my gender. And giving someone who doesn't think I should exist so much access to my body feels incredibly violating. Ick.

[Emily Ray]

I have had some very bad experiences with psychiatrist so I had to rate them as being poor. Now though I have found a MTF psychiatrist and as you would expect it has been nice just being understood.

Huggs

Emily

[Anatta]

I wish there was a category for the gynecologists, for us ftm's. My GP is intimidated but basically friendly, my therapists have been a little inept but not bigoted, I'm just now meeting the more official psych people but they seem nice so far, my daughter's psychiatrist is incredibly accepting and supportive of my gender identity and transition, I don't have an endocrinologist but my T prescriber is very respectful and helpful...

but my gynecologists have both judged me as a person and neglected my actual health issues because they couldn't see past my gender. And giving someone who doesn't think I should exist so much access to my body feels incredibly violating. Ick.

Kia Ora Felix,

I've just added Gynecologist ...

Metta Zenda

[kelly_aus]

My GP was great, simply wrote the referral I requested and really wasn't at all fussed.. My therapist is great, has really helped me with some stuff.. And none of that 'gatekeeper' crap so many around here seem to complain about..

My gyno is fantastic.. Has a great sense of humour, has a great knowledge of what she's doing and is a post-op trans woman..

[Anatta]

My GP was great, simply wrote the referral I requested and really wasn't at all fussed.. My therapist is great, has really helped me with some stuff.. And none of that 'gatekeeper' crap so many around here seem to complain about..

My gyno is fantastic.. Has a great sense of humour, has a great knowledge of what she's doing and is a post-op trans woman..

Kia Ora Kelly,

It's good when things just fall into place, I'm happy that it did/is for you...However at times I think the gate keepers are just doing their job-probing for answers to help their clients, but at times their clients feel somewhat violated when having to look a little deeper into the whys and hows and resent this...

Metta Zenda

[Felix]

Kia Ora Kelly,

It's good when things just fall into place, I happy that it did/is for you...However at times I think the gate keepers are just doing their job-probing for answers to help their clients, but at times their clients feel somewhat violated when having to look a little deeper into the whys and hows and resent this...

Metta Zenda

My gyno told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to get used to being a woman because that's all I'll ever be. Because of her overly focusing on gender when it wasn't the issue, I have some kind of ovarian problem that's gone untreated for months. I was in the ER the other day and they said my right ovary was twice the size it should be, cystic, twisted at a bad angle, and probably infected. I've been telling the doctor about how I've been hurting, bleeding way more often than I should, and way too heavy, and passing weird chunks of grey flesh at odd times in my cycle, and she dismissed everything and kept acting like I was trying to trick her into giving me a hysterectomy. She's not "just doing her job," she's being pointlessly suspicious just because I'm trans. If I were to try to trick somebody into giving me surgery, I'd be much more concerned with top surgery than hysterectomy.

[Anatta]

My gyno told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to get used to being a woman because that's all I'll ever be. Because of her overly focusing on gender when it wasn't the issue, I have some kind of ovarian problem that's gone untreated for months. I was in the ER the other day and they said my right ovary was twice the size it should be, cystic, twisted at a bad angle, and probably infected. I've been telling the doctor about how I've been hurting, bleeding way more often than I should, and way too heavy, and passing weird chunks of grey flesh at odd times in my cycle, and she dismissed everything and kept acting like I was trying to trick her into giving me a hysterectomy. She's not "just doing her job," she's being pointlessly suspicious just because I'm trans. If I were to try to trick somebody into giving me surgery, I'd be much more concerned with top surgery than hysterectomy.

Kia Ora Felix,

I hope things work out for you, can you change your doctor ?

Metta Zenda

[Felix]

Kia Ora Felix,

I hope things work out for you, can you change your doctor ?

Metta Zenda

Yeah, I asked around and found a doctor who sees a few other trans guys in town, but I'm a new patient so I can't see her until January, and the problems I'm having now are pretty urgent. I have ct scan and ultrasound proof from the ER that my ovary is pretty dagnasty and I'm not lying about the pain, so I expect the transphobic lady will stop ignoring me. I got worked in to see her early tomorrow morning. I'm on a lot of painkillers and still hurting a lot, so sorry if I got a little grumpy or ranty.