Scottish MtF transgender help

[Sandra_Dickinson]

Hi all,

I've already posted on a few times about moving forward in the UK as a transgender, and have recently spoken to my GP about it - and she was pretty much useless! Supportive and nice, but no advice on where to go or what to do except a printed list of support groups from google that don't apply to me (The closest was for 13-25 transgenders. I'm 32. Why did I leave it so late...) I was sent away with a promise that I'd be contacted when the doctor found out more, but it took over a month and a half just to get the initial appointment. Plus she had no phone details to contact me with - I had to ask to find that out. I'm not hopeful. I'll keep pushing for help, but with Xmas and the huge waiting lists it's getting harder to put up with.

So are there any UK (Specifically Scottish) girls or boys out there who have been through the system? Is there a way to move things forward myself or should I start looking outside the NHS? I've only found two support clinics in Scotland at all and they charge about £200 per hour for a session - I simply cannot afford that right now, and I don't want counselling or therapy, I want to start on HRT. I assume the NHS will refer me to these places, but how long will that take? Am I just being impatient?

[Mogu]

I don't know how it works in the UK, but in the states most places will require some kind of psychological evaluation. I doubt you'd get on HRT without seeing someone, if you go through insurance/health care.

I saw a doctor in at Fenway health last Thursday, who said that it's completely possible to be on HRT by the end of January. So, two months. Personally, I'd like to move that faster, but oh well.

[Sandra_Dickinson]

who said that it's completely possible to be on HRT by the end of January

That's amazing. Was that the first doctor you saw?

I expect I'l have to talk to someone about this, the doctor mentioned that if I wanted NHS treatment I'd be expected to follow their planned path for care. It's only been four days since the appointment, but I've left this so long to make sure to myself this is what I wanted.

That's amazing for you, and if you get depressed with how long it's taking just remember us British girls dealing with the glacial NHS system

[Isabelle]

My gp gave me hormones. No therapy required. I'm in NZ and I think we have pretty similar "rules" to the UK, you just need to find a gender friendly Dr.. Sorry I can't be any more help.....good luck though

[Sandra_Dickinson]

Isabelle, I wonder if NZ doctors have better training. Mine referred to the fact that she had no idea how HRT worked for men and suggested I may have to see an endocrinologist. I told her what I hoped for, HRT, as a first step but she shot that down. Maybe it is going to be about finding a GP who's dealt with this before.

[Isabelle]

I can assure you, our Drs aren't better trained lol. You just have tofind someone who uses the "informed consent" model. You'll need an endo to monitor your blood but, there's no reason why you can't start immediately and see the endo in a few months time.

[nikkit72]

Hi Sandra,

I'm not in Scotland, but in Wales, and this has, in the past been notorious for being pretty bad when providing support for trans people. Scotland may be better.

If you go down the NHS route, this is what you need to prepare yourself to do...

1, speak to your GP then another GP and possibly another GP to get a referral to the local mental health unit (MHU).
2, After a couple of months attend appointment with  local MHU so they can determine if you have gender dysphoria or you have some other underlying mental health issue, like, say, being clinically nuts... You will then be referred to a gender specialist in a gender clinic/MHU
3, In about 3 months time, attend appointment with your gender specialist who wil ask some difficult questions to try to 'weed out' those who are wasting the clinics time. If you do have GD, they will then expect you to start RLE by changing your name and all your documentation over to your new name and begin integrating with society with your new gender role.
4, In about another 3 months you get a follow up appointment (if they remember to send out the appointment letters  ). If you haven't been scared off by your RLE and have documented evidence such as receipts, name changes, driving license/passport changes etc that you can show the specialist as proof, then they may recommend hormones and send you to an endocrinologist for bloods etc.
5, Wait another 2-3 months for this appointment. Then wait for the prescription (This is where I'm at)
6, Attend follow up appointment with specialist sometime in the future..

It takes MONTHS and MONTHS, or at least it has for me. In fact it will be a year of RLE, after changing my name and all my documents BEFORE starting with the endocrinologist. Not fun  .

If it wasn't for another girl on here advising me to chase up my appointments, I doubt very much if I'd be seeing an endo in January.

I'm not saying you will be treated in the same way or have to wait as long, not everyone is treated the same. The big mistake I made was not taking documented evidence of my name change to show the specialist on my first appointment. This put me back 6 months because they messed up with appointment letters.

Point of all the above is that the NHS route isn't the quick fix that you want.

Depending on your financial situation, you could save a lot of heartache and go privately. It will halve the wait that you get with the NHS.

Hope that helps somewhat and I hope you get better results in Scotland. I have heard of this person http://www.medicalternative.com/gender-dysphoria from another girl and she said she was very good.

Nikki

[Isabelle]

Wow.... I had no idea the nhs was so convoluted! That's terrible

[Sandra_Dickinson]

Nikki,

Thanks so much for sharing your journey so far, it really was the kind of detail that I wanted to hear regarding transitioning through the NHS. I didn't think it would be that long though, or that they would expect RLE before even booking with an endocrinologist. That is harsh, and I'm not sure how I could react to that (I work with the public in retail. Everyone at my job would be fine, but the average Joe off the street? That's a push) Another girl on this forum showed me some recent changes to the Scottish NHS, being able to self refer for HRT and other services that filled me full of hope, but that my doctor knew nothing about. I guessed there would be some kind of screening to weed out timewasters (although why anyone would pretend to have GD is quite beyond me)

Still, it's not always easy to be honest and sharing your own experiences helps force some patience on me. The link you posted was the same centre I found through my own research, too expensive for me right now though.

It took a lot for me to go and talk to the GP, personally - it's quite heartbreaking to not have things move forward after so much soul searching and making the decision to move ahead. I may just have to start saving and look into going private.

Thanks again for sharing <3

[sazzy]

I'm in Newcastle upon Tyne, so nearly Scotland lol.

I went to my gp, told her I was duffering from gender dysphoria, had been all of my life and could she refer me to the relavent people. She said she'd need to find out who the relavent people were, but for me to come back in a week. I did, she has reffered me to the northern gender clinic. I believe there are 3 similar clinics in Scotland. I'm still waiting for that appointment.

If you want to chat more inbox me Hun x

[nikkit72]

There are others on here who have better knowledge of the NHS path than me, however this is only my experience. I don't want to say that one method is better than the other (NHS or Private) so please, even though it may look that way in my post, don't assume that. You will find that most NHS gender specialists offer private consultation so the standard of care must be the same I would like to think. The downside is the time it takes. On the other hand, you could look at things positively and try to improve other non drug/surgical aspects of transition like your voice and presentation. For example,  my mother, who doesn't accept me  , has received countless phone calls from insurance, double glazing, telecoms and PPI companies from a female member of staff      Practice makes perfect as they say...

It's a waiting game, which is why a lot of us self med. I didn't as I have an obsessive, extremist personality (see previous sentence about the phone calls ) which would ultimately mean that I would mess something up. I chose for me. Others successfully self med.

It took a lot for me to go and talk to the GP, personally - it's quite heartbreaking to not have things move forward after so much soul searching and making the decision to move ahead. I may just have to start saving and look into going private.

Thanks again for sharing <3

Things are moving along. You've made that all important first step. You are already 10 years ahead of me.  The worst thing is to do nothing. Make a start and push for things to happen. Find another GP. I think you have a clinic up there called Sandyford Gender Identity Clinic in Glasgow which is NHS. Can you call them directly for advice ? Anyway, don't get angry or depressed, get constructive and creative. You are rebuilding.

Good luck,

Nikki

[Saskia]

When I started to go through the NHS system in the late 1980's my male GP was a little taken aback  but was actually pretty good and sent me to the local psychiatrist (this was in Bradford, West Yorkshire). I had a double session with the psychiatrist lasting over an hour and it was wonderful and healing, to be able to finally talk about how I was feeling. I was finally on the road to recovery. After her diagnosis I had to wait ages then to get the referral to Charing Cross in London (as far as I remember it was months not weeks).
After 18 months or so of wasted time on the NHS I left the system and went private and borrowed the money to pay for my SRS.
My feelings of the NHS at the time were that they seemed to be hoping I'd change my mind and were forever putting me off.
I'm surprised that nowadays local GP's have so little knowledge in gender dysphoria. I hope for your sake that the NHS is somewhat better now than it was for me.

[Sandra_Dickinson]

Thank you Nikki X Your posts are a lot of help. I've looked into self medding... bt I'm pretty sure I'll just mess it up. My opinion is that the doctors will know best, so I'll exhaust every opportunity to get their help before I take that path. I love your idea for voice training though, my voice is something I'm really worried about. You've filled me full of ideas, visiting friends I've came out to in larger towns in female mode and others, and been a great help.

Saskia, I wouldn't say they're actually that bad at how they deal with GD now, just really uninformed. Most figures I can find online put GD at <1% of the population so I guess we're just not a priority in training for general work. It would be nice if they had SOME kind of plan to follow on the first visit rather than 'I dunno. I'll call you' though

[RosieD]

For example,  my mother, who doesn't accept me  , has received countless phone calls from insurance, double glazing, telecoms and PPI companies from a female member of staff      Practice makes perfect as they say...

I am glad you didn't tell me that when we were having a coffee, I would have snorted it straight out my nose. Very unladylike.

From my understanding Scotland is where Wales should have been following a report to the Welsh Assembly last summer that seems to have been ignored (or, more likely, there is no money to implement it). You should, in theory, be able to refer yourself directly to a Scottish GID. There should be no need for RLE before hormones and all therapies should be covered, at least that is what the Scottish NHS literature says. I wonder how much of it is really true rather than politically true. I found this out by Googling but give me a shout if you have problems finding the information and I will see if I can locate it again.

It is almost enough to make me face those Gods-awful winters you have up there.

Rosie

[Sandra_Dickinson]

I had the same info referred to me, and took it to my GP to discuss. She didn't have a clue about any of it though! I'll report back when I hear from her regarding what is next - I want it to be HRT straight away and that's what I tried to self-refer for.

And the winters aren't that bad... it's just that they last for 9 months of the year usually. Summer was a Tuesday this year, I recall.

[Seras]

I kicked the NHS to the kerb when it became apparent they have no flexibility on their rules after a couple of appointments. No full time RLE - no hormones, is an idiotic rule.

Getting hormones privately took 3 months. Screw waiting on the NHS for 2 years. Cost some money sure, but I have some money. I would rather pay than jump their hoops and waste another year. Since I am still not full time and have no intention of doing so until I am comfortable with it, that would have been the minimum.

I would imagine there are some decent private clinics in Scotland but I have no idea where. Lots easier near London. Just make sure when you pay someone they have the capability to prescribe, and know a psych in order to get an evaluation so that they can do so within the standards of care.

[Sandra_Dickinson]

I got a letter of referral to a gender identity clinic in in Edinburgh, one of the ones I'd found online and was planning on contacting myself. I'm buzzing here! Thanks to everyone for the help so far, I'll keep posting here with progress because I have to tell someone or I WILL EXPLODE WITH HAPPINESS.

That letter was dated from the 12th so I'm awaiting another contact to tell me when to show up there for a discussion. Should I show up in full Sandra mode? Seeing as they misspelled my name anyway...

[nikkit72]

That is good news! Show you mean business and turn up in full Sandra mode.  If you do not it could mean delaying the next stage. One rule of thumb with GIC's, always think 1 step ahead. I do not know what it is like in Scotland, but here in the wetlands, the delays are 3-6 months. If you have any other documentation to prove that you are taking steps toward transition like a change of name by deed pole, receipts in your new name, bills etc., take them too as this will all count as proof of RLE. If you want info on deed pole, when you are ready, then PM me or, I guess, just post here.

Oh, and do not explode with happiness or otherwise as it will be seen as a waste of an appointment.

Onward 

Nikki.

[Michaela J.]

Wow, that quick? I got referred to Leeds like a month ago and I've still heard bugger all. Got a psychosexual counselling thing coming up on a date yet to be announced, but yeah. Looking into going to see Dr. Curtis now because the wait is killing me and I don't want to do something stupid like self-medding.

[nikkit72]

Looking into going to see Dr. Curtis now because the wait is killing me and I don't want to do something stupid like self-medding.

Sorry to take off topic, but I thought I would drop in here this... If you are thinking of a trip to London, if you have not already done so, look up Dr Perring at Optimal Health and Dr Lorimer at Gendercare. Both have 'Useful' connections to CHX and both are NHS and private. Not to take anything away from Dr Curtis, but has he not been in a spot of bother in the last couple of years ? Probably all sorted now, but it is your money. There are probably a few more, but as it is expensive to go via the expedited route, it may be worth looking the other two up as well.

Nikki