hysterectomy cost

[Doc]

Plug into Google 'average cost hysterectomy' and I get a few pages listing it as between $5-$8K.

Plug into Google 'average cost hysterectomy ftm' and I get pages listing it as between $10-$20k.

WTF? I cannot concieve of any reason that removing the ovaries as well as the uterus would double the cost. Anybody have an explaination? Different numbers? Some reason besides bigotry (on the part of people who are claiming to be helping us) and gouging?

[tinkerbell]

According to what I know due to recent inquiries done by someone who wants this operation , it is around $12,000 with a very famous doctor in San Francisco, California.  Of course, the costs vary from state to state and from surgeon to surgeon..so yeah...

tink

P.S.  Incidentally, this is for a complete hysterectomy (the removal of the ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus)

[Christo]

yep tink's right bro.  it aint cheap. I plan to have hysto next year.  first things first right?  u can go here:

http://www.transster.com/

u gotta register first but its a good site.  they got all kinds of surgeries, docs and prices to.  I got my top surgery doc on that site.

[Nero]

What type bottom surgery you having, Chris?

[Doc]

Yeah, Chris, I've looked at transster.

What I'm getting at is, why is it expensive for FTMs, but (relatively) cheap for women? Seriously. I was lamenting how out of reach the cost is right now and my mom went, 'Huh?' and told me how this lady at her work had one a few years ago and it was $5k. The lady didn't have insurance and everybody there (small business, like twelve people) just pitched in their unwanted stuff and held a frickin' yard sale to pay for it. I know enough about anatomy and how surgeries are done that I find it perfectly insane to suppose that removing ovaries along with the rest of that stuff actually makes it take twice as long or be twice as difficult to do.

[Christo]

What type bottom surgery you having, Chris?

meta bro.  pallo aint up there yet.  I wanna have it in july 2008.  I already got some money saved but I gotta save more just in case

Yeah, Chris, I've looked at transster.

What I'm getting at is, why is it expensive for FTMs, but (relatively) cheap for women? Seriously. I was lamenting how out of reach the cost is right now and my mom went, 'Huh?' and told me how this lady at her work had one a few years ago and it was $5k. The lady didn't have insurance and everybody there (small business, like twelve people) just pitched in their unwanted stuff and held a frickin' yard sale to pay for it. I know enough about anatomy and how surgeries are done that I find it perfectly insane to suppose that removing ovaries along with the rest of that stuff actually makes it take twice as long or be twice as difficult to do.

yep I know.  Cheapest one I found was almost 9k.  it aint cheap but a dude gotta do what he gotta do

[Nero]

Yeah, Chris, I've looked at transster.

What I'm getting at is, why is it expensive for FTMs, but (relatively) cheap for women? Seriously. I was lamenting how out of reach the cost is right now and my mom went, 'Huh?' and told me how this lady at her work had one a few years ago and it was $5k. The lady didn't have insurance and everybody there (small business, like twelve people) just pitched in their unwanted stuff and held a frickin' yard sale to pay for it. I know enough about anatomy and how surgeries are done that I find it perfectly insane to suppose that removing ovaries along with the rest of that stuff actually makes it take twice as long or be twice as difficult to do.

May be some discrimination. Women usually do it for medical problems, and us doing it is seen as cosmetic. And surgeons who do transsurgeries know they can get away with charging more. But, what can you do.

[RebeccaFog]

Yeah, Chris, I've looked at transster.

What I'm getting at is, why is it expensive for FTMs, but (relatively) cheap for women? Seriously. I was lamenting how out of reach the cost is right now and my mom went, 'Huh?' and told me how this lady at her work had one a few years ago and it was $5k. The lady didn't have insurance and everybody there (small business, like twelve people) just pitched in their unwanted stuff and held a frickin' yard sale to pay for it. I know enough about anatomy and how surgeries are done that I find it perfectly insane to suppose that removing ovaries along with the rest of that stuff actually makes it take twice as long or be twice as difficult to do.

May be some discrimination. Women usually do it for medical problems, and us doing it is seen as cosmetic. And surgeons who do transsurgeries know they can get away with charging more. But, what can you do.

Pay some goon to travel around and punch doctors in the face. Or, since they are mostly men, kick them in the groin.

I'm sure it's a price gouge for FtM's.  Sadly, they make you pay more after you've already had to cough up for physicals, therapy, hormones, and all the other requirements to get a letter; not to mention the crap you go through struggling with your own soul and the people in your life.

[Doc]

May be some discrimination. Women usually do it for medical problems, and us doing it is seen as cosmetic. And surgeons who do transsurgeries know they can get away with charging more. But, what can you do.

Doesn't seem like 'some' discrimination. Sounds like total, across the board discrimination with potentially life-threatening consequences.

You're very likely right, Nero, and it's seen as cosmetic, but this is totally insane -- cosmetic surgery on an internal organ that, being internal, can't be seen?

So far as I have found out, women get hysterectomies for the same reasons FTMs do. Health reasons. It's like the 3rd most common surgery performed in the US, and it's most often done because of fibroids, and it is very often elective in the sense that the woman will not die without it -- the fibroid tumors are benign, but can be uncomfortable and cause cramping and bleeding. Evidently doctors recommend that FTMs get hysterectomies because about 25% of us will get fibroids after long-term use of T, and some unknown percentage get other undesirable (and even more dangerous) side-effects going on with those innards. Every bit as health-valid as women getting hysterectomies because of fibroids. More valid than them getting it as an alternative to tubal ligation with the added side-benefit of stopping periods, and I know somebody who had that done for like twelve hundred bucks, with the rest of the bill paid by a charity that helps women with their 'health care' bills.

So far, the only price comparison I've found between garden-variety hysterectomy and hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (ovariohysterectomy, where they remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes, too) says that taking out those parts at the same time won't add to the surgery cost at all.

If what I'm finding out is really true, this is discrimination of a most dreadful kind. Most transpeople are underemployed and consequently poor, and doctors are doubling their price for a surgery that over a quarter of transmen will need to prevent/end a life-threatening or at the least painful problem?

Well, there's a mission for you, Chris the activist bro.

[Nicholas]

I'm planning to get this surgery, but I can't afford it. There's just no way. I have two kids and lost my job, but I /do/ have Masshealth. Currently, the only thing I have done as far as my transition goes is change my name and find a trans-friendly primary care physician, with whom I've been discussing going on T. Now, having told you that, I have a few questions. First off, my doctor already knows I'm trans and, after reading this thread, I'm wondering - If doctors have to report that - does that mean my insurance already knows and that there's no way I can get any of my surgeries covered, even if the reasoning isn't solely my being trans? I ask because I have all the symptoms of uterine fibroids and my grandmother, mother and aunt ALL had hysterectomies because of fibroids, which makes it highly likely that I do as well. My Mom started bleeding out AT WORK from it and it had to be done as an emergency surgery. I'd really like to avoid that. The fact that it would benefit my transition is honestly secondary at this point, but would I be denied coverage anyway? Last thing, if I have my surgery in another state, would I still be covered or would I have to move to and get insured in the state first?

[devention]

It depends on whether the surgeon will take your insurance. As far as being denied, if you have fibroids, there's documented evidence of them (ultrasound imaging, usually), and your doctor recommends a full hysto and oopho for that reason, I don't think your insurance will have a legal leg to stand on for denial if coverage if it's something they'd normally cover.

[Bimmer Guy]

I'm planning to get this surgery, but I can't afford it. There's just no way. I have two kids and lost my job, but I /do/ have Masshealth. Currently, the only thing I have done as far as my transition goes is change my name and find a trans-friendly primary care physician, with whom I've been discussing going on T. Now, having told you that, I have a few questions. First off, my doctor already knows I'm trans and, after reading this thread, I'm wondering - If doctors have to report that - does that mean my insurance already knows and that there's no way I can get any of my surgeries covered, even if the reasoning isn't solely my being trans? I ask because I have all the symptoms of uterine fibroids and my grandmother, mother and aunt ALL had hysterectomies because of fibroids, which makes it highly likely that I do as well. My Mom started bleeding out AT WORK from it and it had to be done as an emergency surgery. I'd really like to avoid that. The fact that it would benefit my transition is honestly secondary at this point, but would I be denied coverage anyway? Last thing, if I have my surgery in another state, would I still be covered or would I have to move to and get insured in the state first?

If Masshealth is Medicaid, you have to get it done in your state (At least that is my understanding of every state Medicaid program I am aware of).  If it is private insurance, it depends on your plan.

[Sebryn]

I actually got my hysterectomy covered by my insurance. I found a surgeon willing to do it, who coded it as medically necessary. It took a lot of documented complaints of pain and so on. Missed periods....heh T tends to do that... In the end though the insurance approved it and I got it done last year robotically. It took some searching but you can find a surgeon willing to help you. If they won't move on to the next one and so on. Someone will want to charge the insurance an arm and a leg, because remember....they charge and get much more from the insurance company than they can an individual.

I do have a family history of POS and endometriosis...and I ended up having both when they removed the parts (the only for sure way to know is explorative surgery btw). Maybe finding out your family history could help you get it covered.

The key is to do this before you change your gender markers otherwise you'll have to really fight for it.

[Nicholas]

Ok. Good to know. Thanks all. I don't hope I have fibroids, but it's good to know my being trans won't make getting the surgery harder if I do.