I am far from happy with the clinic. They have made mistakes with me on almost every visit. They logged me as a smoker on my first visit, and we had barely been introduced when the first doctor told me, "Well, you realize, of course, that we don't prescribe hormones to smokers..." They also insisted on a mammogram, even though I made it clear that I am post-op. I couldn't get the mammo, and the next clinic doctor told me I didn't need mammos anymore. Who knows what the next doctor will say? The last doctor--I have seen her a couple of times now--told me to get mood stabilizers from my therapist. When I reiterated that he is NOT a medical doctor and cannot prescribe, she said, "Ask him anyway." (
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I have other reasons not to trust this clinic. They tell people with serious mood disorders to cut their T dose in half OVERNIGHT. They did this to me--I have clinical depression and made it clear that I was just going into my winter depression mode at the time. They didn't care. This year, they told my buddy to cut his dose in half, and he's bipolar and was in the mental hospital six or eight months previously for feeling suicidal. Now they're strongarming him because he hasn't had a gyno visit in two years. They make him go every two years, but they make me go every year. If anything, it should be the other way around.
They also don't like to give us copies of our lab results. They did a fairly comprehensive blood workup on my first visit a year ago. They never sent me the results, so I asked for a copy when I went back for the follow-up. The doctor I saw seemed a bit startled but agreed to "sneak" me photocopies and told me they are not supposed to do that. It could be a cost-cutting measure, but it also gives them total control over my information and puts me in the dark. I am tired of playing this game. Next week, I plan to just show up without an appointment and tell them I need copies of all of my labs and find out how to get them. If they refer me to the records department, fine. But the clinic must release the records upon request.
The clinic appears to use a different range of values than my regular doctor uses, but I'm confused about how it all works. Their range for hematocrit is 35-47, and that looks like a female range to me. However, I'm not a medical professional. Anyway, they've been after me about this since I started going there. I believe my regular doctor said that he won't be concerned unless I go above 52, and his colleague stated that number as an upper limit. I stupidly didn't ask whether that was for men or women, but (in any case), it's well above the range used by the clinic. Of course, this is the same clinic that refuses to code me as male. All the FTMs are coded as "FM," and that goes on all of the prescriptions unless you force them to handwrite the prescription--and that's what I now do. I'm about to report them to the Transgender Law Center for outing people to the pharmacies, but I want to see if the doctor passed along my gentle suggestion that the clinic should never use preprinted labels (with FM and MF clearly marked on them) for prescriptions. I doubt that they have changed their procedure, though.
Nobody at the clinic has said anything about iron or anything else--it's pretty much just cholesterol and hematocrit. I have no family history of hemochromatosis that I know of, and I haven't been diagnosed with hemochromatosis.
To get a letter from my regular doctor, I would have to pay for an office visit, and I'm convinced that they won't be impressed by what he has to say anyway. They have their guidelines, and they plan to stick to them. If I thought I could trust them, I would place more weight on their opinion.
Sorry for the rant, but I've just about had it with these yahoos. I'm almost ready to go back to my old endocrinologist, no matter how much it costs. I do have the money right now, but who knows where I'll be financially in a year or two?
