Government funded surgery and jumping through hoop...

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,
Ok just another quick poll....

This is a hypothetical question...And targeted more so at those whose governments don't fund "Gender Affirming Surgeries" [GAS] But everybody's welcomed to respond...

It would be interesting to hear what post-ops who paid their own way feel, if this opportunity had been  open to them prior to their surgery...

I know that some people don't want to feel indebted to their government in any way, but in the long run if you pay or have paid tax, in a sense it's your money anyway...

Metta Zenda

[Janet_Girl]

I am not post-op, just post-Orchie.  But I would go through their BS, if I got surgery at the end, but it will never happen in the US.

[rejennyrated]

Not a chance! Hell would have frozen over first.

What on earth is the point of putting yourself through another set of conditioning and being forced into a package that may not be "right" for you?

In point of fact I probably would have fitted the profile reasonably well, but purely on principle I didn't want to.

My view was that to be any good I must be allowed to do this my way and by my rules! Paying allowed me to demand that freedom. (Plus I could afford it, and by not taking up the government funding I didn't take that place away from someone else who couldn't)

[Caith]

I'll be post-orchi in about three weeks. I'm paying for it, because my employer's health insurance explicitly excludes transgender procedures.  I'll be damned if I jump through anybody else's hoops to get what I need and want.  The WPATH hoops have already cost me a few thousand dollars in therapy, but having a great gender therapist makes these rather easy to endure.  Now that I have obtained two referral letters for surgery, it's all a matter of saving enough money and making the time to get work done. 

The US government already confiscates and wastes a significant portion of my salary.  I seriously don't want the government involved in this very personal and intimate process.

[MillieB]

I mostly agree with Jenny, however, if I want to self fund all the way, it means selling the roof over my head (in the middle of a property crash) so I'm trying to tow the line. I can't pretend that I find it easy.

[regan]

If we could just get it declared anything but "experimental" private insurance would cover it.  For that matter, cosmetic surgery is covered if it is deemed medically necessary for psychological reasons.  I would imagine this sort of thing fits that definition.

As for being government funded, I'd play whatever games are necessary to get what I want.  People have gone so far as to completely de-transition to reach some goal in their life, only to re-transition again after they've reached the goal.  Why not do whatever it takes to get surgery.  You can be anything you want after surgery, its not like they can just take it back or anything.

[peggygee]

Perhaps when I was younger, and my financial situation was different.

However, I truly value the option that I was able to research and choose a surgeon to my liking, as well as not having to be beholden to
any government, parents, family, SO, for assisting or making it possible.

Then too I look at all the hoops the NHS women go through.