'The time when my body would match my essence seemed in sight'
Juliet Jacques returns to the Gender Identity Clinic, hopeful of a long-awaited hormone prescription. Will she get the answer she wants to hear?
* Juliet Jacques
*
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 10.47 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/01/transgender-mental-healthThe wait for my second Gender Identity Clinic appointment felt very different to that for my first, although it lasted nearly as long. The time between my local psychiatric referral and my initial visit to 'Charing Cross' had been fraught with anxiety about whether or not I'd be allowed to continue on the NHS pathway. More confident on leaving that I would, the five-month wait for my next consultation – due to last just thirty minutes – was characterised not by apprehension but anticipation, especially as the literature I received before my first visit told me that 'hormones may be prescribed after the second appointment'. Finally, the time when my body would match my essence seemed in sight.
Friends tried to talk me out of my impatience: five months will fly by, they said. Especially with the World Cup on, I thought. Wrongly, it transpired, as each game felt longer than the last. Anyway, I got on with life, the social aspects of my transition continuing to settle into an agreeable groove, and soon enough I returned to the West London Mental Health Trust's surgery for my second appointment.
