My friend is trying to get top surgery, but his dad won't let him. He is turning 17 next month and he was hoping to do it this summer. His mom is totally behind him, but his dad, who has been putting barriers in front of his whole transition (he kept giving excuses as to why he couldn't change his name, get on T, etc., but he let him eventually), keeps giving reasons why he can't have surgery. Initially it was because it's too expensive, but when he went to his endocrinologist a few weeks ago he asked and his doctor (also my doctor btw) said that his insurance will cover it if he changes his health care to male and does it as gynecomastia. So he asked his dad, but now he says no because he doesn't understand why he would have optional surgery (my friends dad had cancer when he was 16 and recently had heart surgery and will probably have more) and he has some sort of paranoid belief that top surgery is really risky and he keeps saying that it's too dangerous and that there's this risk of infection and what not (I know that all surgery's have risks, but in my experience (I had surgery last summer) it's not a very dangerous surgery as far as surgery's go)
I feel kind of stuck and I know that he feels really defeated because his mom won't stand up for him and his dad is being so resistant. The only options are to try to persuade his dad or try to come up with $10,000 somehow. I don't know how to do either, but I really want to help. Does anyone have any resources for his dad to try to address his concerns?
Thanks so much.
