how'd you do it?

[Gadgett]

I know that a lot of people, myself included, would love to hear from post opt girls, about how did you pay for it? How long did it take, what did you do to raise it, do you have any regretes about how you did it, or would you do anything different?

I know i would love to hear some stories about this.

[Kayla86]

Agreed I'd definitely be interested to read how it was all paid for at the end. So far the front end of all this is fairly costly but nothing compared to surgery...

[Northern Jane]

By 17 I knew I was going to have to have surgery in order to survive even though surgery wasn't done in North America at that time and it was ridiculously expensive in Morocco. I also knew I wasn't any good at saving so every spare penny was put  into buying things that would appreciate in value or at least hold their own, things that would be easy to sell. By 7 years later when surgery became available, I had enough money (thanks to a little negotiating with the doctor) and sold everything I owned. I left home with just enough money for surgery and a couple of months living expenses and a suitcase - nothing else, just money and a suitcase.

[Tristan]

I know mine was paid for through the state of Florida. it was not easy though. from 12-now they have been a constant part of my life and kept a close eye on my mental health and activities. its  best described like having a second over protective dad thats always watch. but at least things got paid for and i got to stay out of lock up. so thats a silver lining. i was told im not the only one who had state help.

[smile_jma]

In the US, NOW it's covered by many insurance policies, so I think there'll be more and more going that route.

[Katie]

Well when I got surgery it was 7500 us. I think the doctor now charges a bit over 10,000 us.

That is less than just about any new car. Even when you factor in hotel and flight to Thailand.

So I saved my money. Simple as that. I went from starting hormones to surgery in a year and a month. The year thereafter I had ffs. Speaking of cost the ffs cost me more than SRS,BA,lipo, and all expenses cost to go to Thailand.

I realize some people have a hard time getting the funds for surgery but I can say one thing, a hell of a lot of the people that claim they don't have the money to my surprise have a lot of money in assets, or smoke, or spend money on stuff that if they were to sell things or stop some habbits they would have the funds for surgery in short order. Of course people have priorities and so perhaps habbits and stuff take priority for them. I choose to fix my birth defect and move on.

PS I can give a couple examples of spending money that does not necessarily need to be spent. So cable tv and smart phone contracts. If you have both of those your spending between 1500 and 2000 dollars a year. You buy an antenna and get a ton of hd channels for free and you get a regular phone and saved money starts adding up.

Katie

[JennX]

I worked and saved. Nothing spectacular. Paid for it all myself. No help. No insurance. Just plain old hard work and saving. I paid out of pocket and had surgery here in the US.

As for the how long? Do you mean how long to save the money or how long from beginning therapy, hrt, to sugery?

[Jenna Marie]

My story isn't all that exciting, really. In fact, my wife did most of the hard work of managing the saving aspect; basically, for three years we didn't buy anything we didn't need, and what we did buy, was on sale. I'm still honestly not sure how she pulled it off, as the $20,000 price tag was only a little less than my net income for a year from my day job.

I also did freelance work at two additional jobs, which helped, although it wasn't a lot of money by itself.

I started transition in July 2009, finished in June 2010, and had GRS in the summer of 2012. No regrets, except that of course I wish I could've managed to pay for surgery sooner. We could've taken out a second mortgage, and we did have that as a fallback option, but I *would* have regretted that.

[calico]

I invested (poorly) in fast toys to postpone and try to make me happy and when I realized wasn't doing it I sacrificed it and paid for the surgery. Only regret is I didn't get surgery sooner and that I spent entirely to much money on the toy.