transition treated like fertility

[kira21 ♡♡♡]

Definitely one of the best articles I have read on being transgender for a good while.

https://www.susans.org/2015/10/19/transition-treated-like-fertility/

I know the article is on susans.org but I wanted to say how interesting in found it and thought that it might make an interesting discussion topic.

I certainly think that it's the way forward.

[suzifrommd]

What if Transition Were Treated Like Fertility?

By Suzi Chase, 10/19/15

https://www.susans.org/2015/10/19/transition-treated-like-fertility/

Consider the way fertility medicine is practiced:

Patents can receive hormonal or irreversible surgical intervention without these safeguards. Insurance coverage is a given, and in some cases, mandated by law. Implicit in medical policy is the assumption that people can decide whether they want to be fertile. If someone who is infertile wants to be fertile, all sorts of treatments are available, some of them hormonal. Many are routinely funded by insurance. Likewise, if a fertile patient wants to be infertile, they are offered hormonal or surgical treatments based on the patient's wishes. Even though surgery is difficult, if not impossible to reverse, there are no humiliating psychological tests required to figure out whether people are competent to make that decision. And no one needs to be diagnosed with Fertility Dysphoria to receive treatments to change their level of fertility.

Doctors assume restoring someone to their desired level of fertility is a worthy health goal and work to make it happen. The goal of that sort of medicine is to give patients medical options rather than protect them from possible regret. Despite the seriousness, irreversibility, and life impact, no one ever asks patients seeking fertility treatment to prove they really want a baby or those seeking contraception or sterilization to prove they don't. Doctors simply take their word for it. Counseling is available to those who seek it, as it is for anyone else, but no letter from a psychologist, much less a lifestyle test, is required as proof.

Why couldn't gender reaffirming treatments work the same way?

[Ms Grace]

I don't mind the RLE - it's the dealing with people who consider being trans to be a "psychiatric disorder" that really annoys me.

[Kellam]

It does,seem like a well reasoned and relatively air tight argument. Definitely how it should work. And Ms Grace, I wholeheartedly agree, I do not have a disorder, my mind is well ordered and healthy. I do see how RLE could be helpful, I know my thought process can be slow, but I think it should be up to the patient. I reached a place where I was ready for surgery a month or two back but I have to wait until next spring. My doctors have told me they will give me my letters any time I want. I am stuck because business people are guarding their cash piles. I am trying to remain patient...

[iKate]

As mentioned, I have to disagree with some of it. It isn't a cakewalk as it seems, insurance doesn't cover all or most of it  - they only covered I think 3 cycles, and don't cover the expensive medications in many cases. Plus if you've deliberately sterilized yourself (eg tubal ligation or vasectomy) they won't cover you.

But yeah, no RLE. Except that we don't require RLE for hormones now in many places either. 

But I had to get tests up the wazoo. She did too, obviously. It involved medical tourism, as well as buying medicines from questionable sources when insurance would not cover. Some people even self medicate with drugs such as clomid to increase their fertility when the doctors say no. Sounds a lot like what trans people go through to me...