Small Update

[PBP]

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted on in for about a year now, I apologise for that, a combination of academic work and forgetting my log in details meant I haven't gotten round to it.

So, I'm currently 18. I came out to my parents in October 2014, and went to my GP. I was referred to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and got an appointment with them in October 2015. The service is stretched to the limit and as I wasn't suicidal, I was always at the bottom of the priority list for an appointment. Whilst this is the most reasonable way of allocating appointments, it meant I sat around twiddling my thumbs for a year whilst gender dysphoria remained.

I have had two appointments with CAMHS thus far, after which the appointment was made to refer me to Nottingham GIC (Gender Identity Clinic). I received my referral letter mid-June which warned me of a 16 month waiting list for an appointment.

So, unless some miracle occurs, it will be approximately 3 years since I came out and spoke to my GP until I actually get somewhere, which with the stories I've heard of GICs, doesn't fill me with confidence that I will actually get anywhere.

Does anyone have any advice of what I can do to potentially speed up this process or otherwise manage things? It is horribly depressing to think about it thus far as I cannot stand getting more masculine whilst waiting for the NHS to get its act together.

Thanks,
PBP

[alex82]

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted on in for about a year now, I apologise for that, a combination of academic work and forgetting my log in details meant I haven't gotten round to it.

So, I'm currently 18. I came out to my parents in October 2014, and went to my GP. I was referred to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and got an appointment with them in October 2015. The service is stretched to the limit and as I wasn't suicidal, I was always at the bottom of the priority list for an appointment. Whilst this is the most reasonable way of allocating appointments, it meant I sat around twiddling my thumbs for a year whilst gender dysphoria remained.

I have had two appointments with CAMHS thus far, after which the appointment was made to refer me to Nottingham GIC (Gender Identity Clinic). I received my referral letter mid-June which warned me of a 16 month waiting list for an appointment.

So, unless some miracle occurs, it will be approximately 3 years since I came out and spoke to my GP until I actually get somewhere, which with the stories I've heard of GICs, doesn't fill me with confidence that I will actually get anywhere.

Does anyone have any advice of what I can do to potentially speed up this process or otherwise manage things? It is horribly depressing to think about it thus far as I cannot stand getting more masculine whilst waiting for the NHS to get its act together.

Thanks,
PBP

Go privately to get your diagnosis, and therefore prescriptions, while remaining on the NHS list - ultimately, if you don't intend to go abroad for the final surgery, you are going to have to see them in the end anyway. By the time you do, you can already be well through the treatment and RLE. For which the evidence and the dates will be apparent.

Yes, it's not cheap. If you're a student, you must have access to an interest free overdraft - use it. It'll clean you out - you'll know if it's worth the price.

What exactly do you fear about the GIC lot? They can't over-rule a private diagnosis. They can't halt treatment you're already on. The psychiatric reports your private doctor sends them aren't given less weighting. Although if you do want publicly funded treatment, you'll certainly have to comply with their waiting times and their choice of psychiatrist as well as that.

I know that the public clinics had a terrible reputation years ago, for things like expecting you to turn up in Laura Ashley florals, with an overtly feminine chosen name like Francesca or Cassandra, and discuss your since childhood fantasies of being a delicately heterosexual woman who wanted nothing more than to be penetrated by a builder or a squaddie, with no interest in anything less stereotyped than a Mills and Boon book or a cookery programme, but they have changed.

I went to school relatively near Charing Cross, well, further into town, but near a shopping district. I used to see these women coming back and forth, done up to the nines, skulking around the cosmetics counters in Boots or Harvey Nichols. Five'o'clock shadows and silk blouses and chemotherapy style wigs. It looked brutal. Honestly, they frightened me. Such a distinctive look, half way between a porn star and a suburban housewife. One of the reasons I put it off for so long.

There is a series in the Guardian you may find helpful - Google 'Guardian transsexual Juliet' - and it should come up. It discusses the fear of places like Charing Cross expecting you to exhibit this kind of behaviour - and why it's an outdated fear. It's a very interesting series of articles that the writer started and ended over a two year period - from first appointment, to post surgery.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful re: waiting times than saying 'pay privately' but unfortunately, that is the only option. It's what I had to do, and the NHS have been completely willing to work with my private specialist on everything from accepting what is said, to doing what is asked, to conducting the tests (so that you aren't paying for those privately), to prescribing on order, to fertility preservation. Within a timeline that I wouldn't even be on if I was still hanging around waiting for appt number one.

I would much rather have the final surgery in the UK, so I will have to remain on the public waiting list. It's not really the money - I could probably beg and borrow it if I wanted to find a foreign surgeon to work with the privately paid for letters of permission - it's that I don't want to have such serious surgery thousands of miles away, and have the horrible thought of a long haul flight after it, or hanging around in some hotel for weeks on end before you can even do that.

All credit to those who can face the prospect of sitting for all those hours between Bangkok and Heathrow, but it's not something I'm willing to take on - yet.

It's not just 16 months to access treatment by the way. It's 16 months to get the first appointment, at which you will not come out with hormones. That'll be some way beyond that after another waiting period. If you can't face it, you're going to have to find a way to pay.

I wouldn't sit around waiting for a miracle. If anything, health funding is likely to go the opposite way now that half the country has voted to destroy the economy on the back of an obvious lie. Far from extra money for the NHS, we're already down by the price of decades worth of EU contributions just in bank liquidity alone for the last week.

[alex82]

Hopefully someone who has been entirely and only through the NHS can tell you other things.

My only advice regarding accessing therapy (as in counseling) on the NHS is, do NOT admit that you aren't suicidal. Just let it be assumed that you are, and clock up the begging GP appointments, and the calls to the 24 hour service at 3am whenever you happen to be awake. They need to think 'oh god, not you again'. Not 'this person can wait'. Don't lie and say you are either. For a start, they're professionals - they know. Secondly, should you want to adopt, you'll need to provide a medical history and prolonged suicidal ideation (let alone lying about feeling it) is reasonable enough evidence of unsuitability.

Is a really unfortunate irony with accessing mental health treatment either publicly or privately...you need to be able enough and well enough to fight for it. I can't see how that would change in any system and it's a really cruel irony. Those that aren't well enough will not get the best or be able to articulate what they need to the right people. And if they become an emergency, they are exactly that, without the careful and sustained routes that unwell people of any type really need. Sorry to ramble, this is one idea for my upcoming dissertation.

[PBP]

Thank you very much for the advice. What private options are there available in the UK?

[alex82]

Thank you very much for the advice. What private options are there available in the UK?

Where are you based? Midlands or something? Going by the reference to Nottingham.

Just google for private gender dysphoria specialists in the area, and you'll get an appointment within days.

Try gendercare.co.uk - it's in London but there is a fee section to give you an idea of how much it costs per hour. Actually it's slightly cheaper than I pay, but it's roughly the same ballpark - £200 and something an hour.

The private option is exactly the same but without the 16 month wait, and the new waiting list after the 16 months. Usually it can be dovetailed with NHS services and prescriptions and tests - check that locally, and stay on the NHS list because you will need to see them in the end - you'll just be 16 months ahead on everything else by the time you do. I suppose it depends on whether your NHS GP is cooperative or not. Mine is very cooperative - and paying for certain things doesn't preclude you from being entitled to public funding where it's available and quick enough, but others may not be.

I'll tell you who I use by pm if you want to go ahead, but it's nowhere near the midlands. I know it sounds like a ridiculous amount per hour - particularly as a young student, but it's not as if you're seeing them weekly or even monthly. And providing your NHS GP cooperates, you won't be paying for anything but their time and for their instructions to be sent to your GP.

[PBP]

I'm Midlands yeah. I believe Gendercare has a person that is available to give appointments in Nottingham? I'll look into that.