Referrals to the GIC in the UK?

[Thatotherspectre]

I hope this is the right place to post this, I'm unsure where to post it and I don't think I've the forum privileges to PM people yet? Otherwise I'd have PM'd someone first to ask. Sorry if this isn't in the right place. :S I kinda figured since I'm FtM it'd go here?

I'm FtM and I've recently changed doctors because my old GP practice, despite being my family doctor since birth, were refusing to refer me to a GIC and kept telling me no. I ended up switching to a GP surgery where a relative works as a nurse, got an appointment and the doctor told me he'd already contacted a psychiatrist about me being transgender thanks to my relative explaining it to him. He called me today to tell me he had not had a response from them and as such he was referring me to something to do with mental health, and that if I've not heard anything in four weeks, contact him.

I'm pretty upset about it, because I've not had a GIC referral, instead I've been referred to this mental health thing. Whilst I understand that they need to make sure I'm of a sound mind, particularly with a new GP, do the GIC not give you a mental health check when you go there? I've heard lot of conflicting information about it and I'm both confused and upset by it all. What exactly should the GP be doing?

My concern is that with GIC waiting times being high as it is, adding on this mental health services is just another two or more months added on top before I even get the possibility of a referral. Are we not able to refer ourselves or make an appointment with the GIC?

I've not started treatment yet because I've been battling with GP's since January and I just don't seem to be getting anywhere. I kind of feel like this is never going to progress past the GP's. I thought a GP could refer you to the GIC themselves and that the GIC checked your mental status? I kind of feel like I'm being fobbed off?

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this, I'm really stuck and I've no one to ask or talk to. I feel really isolated.

[Jayne]

Don't panic Auntie Jayne is here!!

I'm seconds away from popping out so i'll give you a longer reply sometime very soon.
The rules have altered slighly (in your favour) over the last year or so but unless I missed this when I re-read the rules you still have to have an initial assesment, I had my appointment through in about 5wks.

Here's where things improve, you should be seen by a GIC within 3 months of being refered, if you're close eonough to Exeter then request to be refered to the Laurels. They're nothing short of marvelous, under the new rules you can request which clinic you are seen at. Tell your GP that you do not want to be refered to Charing Cross under any circumstance due to their very long waiting lists. It seems that every Dr in the south of the country automaticaly send everyone there & the clinic is straining under the pressure.

I'll try to tell you more over the weekend when I have time.

P.S. as you're new here be sure to check the site rules to live by, i'm sure one of the nice mods will pop in & post a link for you

[Ollie]

Maybe you can try asking your GP if it's alright for you to find your own psychiatrist. Before I saw Dr Richard Curtis in London to get the ball rolling on T, I did the dirty work with finding a psychiatrist to talk to. I'm sure if you searched you'd be able to find one in your area who can deal with gender related issues.

This is if you have the means to pay for this though. I guess it will depend on your age as well. But yeah, I just told her why I was seeing her and what I needed at the end of it, she was more than happy to write me a letter I could take to Dr Curtis to show I had taken steps to talk to a counsellor and that my mental state was not suicidal.

I don't know where you live, but I had a chat with my new GP just yesterday about a referral and even though she was happy to refer me, she did recommend that I wrote a letter explaining how gender dysphoria is impacting my life. Apparently doing this can help back up your case to get funding in the future.

I'm guessing that you can't/don't want to go down private transitioning route? You can always just see Dr Curtis a couple of times until he gives you the go ahead with Testosterone, and then transfer back to the NHS? I don't see any point in paying £60, and travel costs on top of that to go see him for 5 minutes where he looks at your blood results to say they're normal...your GP or the nurse can tell you if your hormone levels are wrong.

If going private is out of the question and you feel like your GP is no help I would just suggest finding a new one again. But before signing up to a new one take a look at their doctors, see what they studied/specialized in. After having no help from previous GPs my partner and I looked for one with a background in counselling/psychology. Yesterday was the first appointment I had with this new doctor, and she agreed to a referral off the bat and was a lot more informative and helpful than any other GP I saw.

That's about all I can say as I'm still sort of figuring things out myself. I will document my process and experience so that I can be of more help in the future

[Thatotherspectre]

Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it.

I had recently heard that we now have the right to be seen within three months, which is a good thing when referred, I just cannot seem to get the referral. D: This doctor is adamant in sending me to a mental health service thing, he was vague on what it was, just that if I'd heard nothing if four weeks, call him.

Sadly private isn't an option for me, I'm on my own and only just scrape by on my bills, so I've no spare income to pay for private, although I did look into it once, but it was figures of up to £100+ for appointments with private gender clinics that scared me off.

Letter wise my new GP has a copy of my letter I wrote to my father which fully explained my history of gender dysphoria from being about age seven onwards, he said it was that which motivated him to send me to a counsellor, but no word of referral.

Depending on costs and how many appointments I'd need with a psychiatrist, I could maybe save for a few appointments with a private psychiatrist, but it would depend on how many appointments I'd need for them to declare me as being of sound mind to satisfy my GP for the referral. I'm loathe to switch again since GP's in my town are a little difficult to come by in terms of getting appointments and such. (I had to wait 4 weeks for this appointment with my new one >_<) and I'm not close enough to London to warrant the huge travel expenses to see Dr Curtis, they'd utterly drain my wallet, as I'm in Yorkshire.

I'm trying to think of alternate routes to transition and such but I'm quite stuck. Half of me thinks maybe I'm not trying hard enough and don't deserve to transition. Silly I know, but I seem to be going in circles with trying to get the referral with GP's. I've seen a few different ones in my original GP's and in this new one and so far there has only been vague hints of a referral.

[Jayne]

You do deserve to transition, it's not easy getting through the admin side of things with the NHS but the guideline changes from late 2013 have made things alot easier.
The first phsyciatrist you'll see won't be a gender specialist, his or her job will be to see if you have any underlying issues that need to be dealt with & you shouldn't have to wait long for that.

Your wait from referal to your first visit should be no more than 12 weeks, do a search online for UK gender clinics to see which one is closest, if you phone them they should be able to give you a rough idea of waiting times. It varies from one clinic to another so if there are two clinics within a similar radius of you check them both, you now have the right to request which clinic you go to.

Look online for the NHS guidelines (sorry I can't do links), I also suggest checking out GIRES website as they have all of the NHS approved leaflets about the process to help guide you.

Ask to speak to your practice manager & request that you be assigned a dedicated GP for any gender treatment issues so that you will always see a GP who has researched the process.
My last two practices were accomodating towards this & it made life much easier for me.

Always request copies of any letters from GP's, Phsyciatrists, GIC's etc. Every time i've recieved a letter i've gone straight to my GP's reception to make sure it goes on their sytem asap, i've yet to turn up & be told "we already have that in the system". You may only shave a few days off of waiting but this has saved weeks when letters went astray.

[Thatotherspectre]

Thank you for the info Jayne, I seriously appreciate it. It's very strange to go into something so important feeling so very blind about it all! >_<

I think the closest to me in terms of GIC are Nottingham and Northampton. I've heard good things about both online so I shall do as you suggested and call for waiting time info.

I think I have a few things printed off on the NHS like the gender interim, but it's mainly info for GP's on what to do with a transgender patient. I was advised to hand it over to my GP by a few folk on ->-bleeped-<- so I shall look into the others you mentioned too.

I actually had no idea you could request to see a specific doctor with an on going treatment, so that's new to me! I think my doctor is the manager of the surgery so I shall give him a poke about this, as well as saving any letters I get during any of this.

Thank you for advising me, it's made it seem a lot clearer. I've been worrying about it since a referral just seems like the holy grail with my GP!