Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hello everyone! I recently started T (huzzah!) and I thought I'd share my experience as there doesn't seem to be as many people who go this route than the "letter from therapist" route.

First and foremost, I want to emphasize how important I think therapy is. I personally did not have lots of "gender therapy" per se, but I was seeing a licensed psychologist for over a year and doing this really enabled me to recognize my feelings and emotions a lot better. I was in the military, only recently out (two months) so I wasn't exactly able to discuss gender related things either.

Now, on to the topic at hand. Informed Consent. I had no idea what that even was until about a month and a half ago when I stumbled upon the term somewhere in this forum. (Just in case anyone reading this is also unfamiliar, this page explains it)
https://www.susans.org/wiki/Informed_consent
After researching a bit, I decided this was the route I wanted to go, and conveniently located about a 20 minute drive from my house was a Planned Parenthood location listed on the above link as a clinic that operated on informed consent. Lucky me. Unlucky for me is that they didn't accept my insurance (Tricare), but they do accept most others. More on that later.

Well, I called and scheduled my appointment, when prompted I told them I wanted to be seen for Transgender Services. On the day of my appointment, as I got to the counter to check in, the receptionist looked me up by last name then handed me a sticky note and asked me to write my preferred name on it. From that point on I was referred to by male pronouns and my preferred name, Konnor. She handed me two small packets of paper to fill out and bring back to her when done. One was a standard medical history and information form, and the other was all questions due to gender identity. Once those were done and I sat in the waiting room for awhile (they were quite busy) I was called back into a room. When the doctor came in she gave me the Informed Consent form, which basically has all the effects of testosterone written on it. Next to each line you must initial and at the end is a "I understand the risks and associated changes with Testosterone...." line which I signed and gave back to her. She asked me questions on gender identity, etc, and told me I'll need to do a blood lab. So a nurse came in, drew some blood samples, and the doc came back in saying she had written my prescription, was faxing it to Strohecker's Pharmacy and to give them a call so they could ship it to my address.

Bada bing bada boom that was it. Now like I said, since they didn't accept my insurance I had to pay out of pocket. I was a bit worried thinking it was going to come out to $200+ dollars. Nope. For the visit and lab and everything, it came out to about $70. Now they do operate on a sliding scale, so that's not a definitive price, but I will say I had two incomes from being on my final leave still technically in the army and working a part time job but getting full time hours. So I imagine it can be even cheaper.
Once I was done there, I had to wait until the next day to call Strohecker's as it was after 5pm when I was done. When I did call them, they were very, very friendly, had my prescription ready, and all I had to do was provide my email and home address, and then give them my card information to pay for the T. I don't remember the exact amount, but I believe the T came out to about $67 dollars, and they also gave me free needles and supplies, and shipped it priority. It arrived at my house in three days. Now I only need to go back to the clinic periodically for blood tests to check my T levels.

My total cost was about $140. Not bad, not bad at all.

Well, today is my 1 week on T mark. I am very grateful for so easily being able to start T, as I know it's not so easy for other guys. I hope sharing my story helps someone out there. :)

I'm also doing informed consent but it isn't that quick due to New York City being a really populous place and Callen-Lorde being the only place that offers this. To my knowledge anyways. First, I had to get bloodwork done in July and then get an appointment to see the doctor for a physical, review bloodwork and then get my T prescription. The doctor was all booked up this summer so I had to settle for seeing him in October. OCTOBER.

Congratulations though.

Oh wow, I'm sorry for the wait! I guess I should have added that I live in California.
I honestly was expecting something slower, but I guess the stars were lined up right for me or something.

Hey man great to hear it's going well for you. I'm also going through planned parenthood with informed consent, in Colorado. When I lived in Southern California I couldn't find a planned parenthood that offered transgendered services that was closer than like 3 hours away. But yea, they're great at planned parenthood, very professional and respectful. And costs stay pretty low. With my insurance I actually haven't paid a dime yet. Just $10 for a take home injection kit with needles, syringes, alcohol pads , band aids, and the biohazard needle disposal bin.

I saw on another older thread that there is an Informed Consent list by state in the WIKI, but couldn't find it there. Does it still exist? Could you throw me the link, please?

The link I included in the first post actually has a by-state list.
https://www.susans.org/wiki/Informed_consent
If your state doesn't have any listed or near you, I'd still try calling around though.

Also, try this link
http://transresource.tumblr.com/post/36603564709

Dude gotta say I'm jealous. I went to PP on Monday and they won't give me my prescription until the blood work comes back. Too bad I have tricky veins and their phlebotomists aren't exactly great at finding tricky veins. I'm on my third try tomorrow and I'm going to a specialized blood lab instead so they can get me in one or two sticks.

Wow they didn't wait for my bloodwork... The doc called me a couple days later to tell me everything was normal, but I had the script that day. Maybe she was more lenient cause I had just had all kinds of physicals and stuff done prior to leaving the army. I thought that was just how they did things.

Luckily my veins are never hard to find, I bitch out enough as it it when it comes to needles entering my veins. :D

Quote from: AeroZeppelin92 on August 07, 2014, 05:13:29 PM
Thanks for the links!
Chris

Very happy to hear that. I had to wait for my labs to return (which took about 2 days) before my script would be written. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm obese and have a risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and other "fat" people problems that they had to test for. My blood is "excellent" according to the nurse so I was given the go-ahead. I'm assuming you had a sliding scale fee for your things? I have "good" insurance so I've paid a bit more for labs and doctor visits along with therapist appointments so I'm a little jealous. Congratulations.

Quote from: AeroZeppelin92 on August 07, 2014, 02:12:50 PM
Oh wow, I'm sorry for the wait! I guess I should have added that I live in California.
I honestly was expecting something slower, but I guess the stars were lined up right for me or something.

It's okay, two months won't kill me just yet and gives me time to get my stuff together. :-\
You certainly lucked out for sure and I'm very happy for you.

The lists are *really* incomplete. Not sure how to add to these but I have tried to add to resource lists without success in the past. I know there to be at least one informed consent clinic in New Mexico. Also several of the Planned Parenthoods operate that way. These are all over the country but not all PPs.

--Jay

I'm wondering what your dosage was when you first started T

Quote from: wesxryan on June 28, 2016, 05:39:35 PM
I'm wondering what your dosage was when you first started T

Welcome  to Susan's Place. You may not discuss dosage on the site but you may discuss most medications. The rules in this post will explain it in more detail. It has to do with the fact that there is a legal liability if we provide information that could be used for self medication. Other than that, topics are pretty free on the site. If there is anything I can help you with, let me know.

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I'm going to the Doctor tomorrow first appointment at an informed consent physician group.  Fingers crossed. 

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Heeeey, congrats dude! I alsodid T by informed consent and it is awesome! I actually hadnt done any research at all so tbh I expected to be interrogatted whether I was trans enough but I got the shot the same day and I was shocked, lmao

Im glad this exists and I hope it really helps out a lot of others, too.

Got it!  Just did my first shot. It was grant subsidized.   Insurance didn't cover it,  due to "formulary issues",  I'll be calling them tomorrow for sure.

But I'm super excited,  started a video diary, going to do a change and symptom log to keep track of everything.  There's no real concrete research, so I was thinking of doing a case study on myself. There's all these video blogs on YouTube and the such but no  compiled info in  a data pool.  I'm getting ideas !

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Insurance can be very irritating. I don't find it worthwhile for my scrip because it covers only a month at a time. By the time I've paid, what, five dollars a month (well, it would be every 28 days) five times and called in all of the refills and made five separate trips and found parking five times in a very tricky area . . . I'm happy to pay the forty-something that a full vial costs at my pharmacy.

Quote from: Arch on June 30, 2016, 02:14:28 AM
Insurance can be very irritating. I don't find it worthwhile for my scrip because it covers only a month at a time. By the time I've paid, what, five dollars a month (well, it would be every 28 days) five times and called in all of the refills and made five separate trips and found parking five times in a very tricky area . . . I'm happy to pay the forty-something that a full vial costs at my pharmacy.

Yes, agree. My insurance is great - I've had very few issues getting doctor visits and surgeries covered. But ask them to cover a 10ml vial of T and it's a huuuuuge problem. Definitely not worth all the back and forth it would take to just use 1ml vials in my opinion.

I don't know what the big fuss is--why insurance companies seem to resist covering the large vials. I used to get months' worth of birth control pills and antidepressants at one time. Why is T so different?

Quote from: Arch on July 01, 2016, 03:51:59 AM
I don't know what the big fuss is--why insurance companies seem to resist covering the large vials. I used to get months' worth of birth control pills and antidepressants at one time. Why is T so different?

My guess would be that it's due to being a schedule III controlled substance, but I'd love to see an internal policy from an insurer about it.

Quote from: FTMax on July 01, 2016, 09:38:48 AM
My guess would be that it's due to being a schedule III controlled substance,

And, as such, obviously has addictive properties...

Congrats dude, and yeah I´m jealous but also happy for you  8)

Long way to go here in Europe, where clinics claim they practice Informed Consent, but in reality make you go through a minimum half year wait and half year therapy. Totally bonkers!

It´s funny how a lot of us don´t know what the options are until we´ve moved along and are familiar with the transition world. I´m thinking more general information should be available, maybe it will be in the future.

I had my first appointment with planned parenthood in Charleston, SC yesterday.  My experience was similar to yours except I have to wait for my bloodwork to come back. Assuming it is good they will call my script in to my local pharmacy.

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That's interesting. I've never had an issue with my insurance covering the large vials (I didn't realize how lucky I was on this front as I just thought it was something they did).
It runs me thirty bucks for a 10ml vial.

This may be a little off topic but it has been 3 weeks, when does the sweating stop?!! I know its hot in the summer but damn.

Quote from: zeus33 on July 14, 2016, 09:46:46 PM
This may be a little off topic but it has been 3 weeks, when does the sweating stop?!! I know its hot in the summer but damn.

Never.

Quote from: zeus33 on July 14, 2016, 09:46:46 PM
This may be a little off topic but it has been 3 weeks, when does the sweating stop?!! I know its hot in the summer but damn.

I sweat a lot now, even in warm (not hot) weather. Once spring arrives, I'm like a little hotbox all over my body. I've figured out what works for me and keeps me reasonably odorless, but I'm still sweaty. When I started T, I expected more underarm sweat but not all-over-the-body sweat. And I sorta conveniently didn't think about crotch sweat. :o

Quote from: Arch on July 15, 2016, 06:38:06 PM
I sweat a lot now, even in warm (not hot) weather. Once spring arrives, I'm like a little hotbox all over my body. I've figured out what works for me and keeps me reasonably odorless, but I'm still sweaty. When I started T, I expected more underarm sweat but not all-over-the-body sweat. And I sorta conveniently didn't think about crotch sweat. :o

I'm moving to Alaska,  it's settled then.  Any weather that results in swamp was is not ok.

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I have allergies and wanted a good, strong, hypoallergenic antiperspirant. Bad move. For one thing, I had to use so much of it that I had all of this nasty residue on my shirts that didn't come out in the wash. I had to put on gloves and rub the fabric vigorously in HOT water (ouch) before doing a regular wash load.

Another issue was that I sweated anyway, profusely! The products didn't even put a dent in the perspiration (and, of course, they did nothing for the rest of my body). The last issue was that I smelled anyway and even smelled worse with certain products.

I've reconciled myself to the sweating, but I use a Thai stick that controls the odor quite nicely, and I put powder around my crotch and related areas in warm weather. I think that this is the best I can do. Heh. I'm sensitive to the cold, so moving to the Gobi Desert definitely is not in the cards for me.

Quote from: Arch on July 15, 2016, 07:45:15 PM
I have allergies and wanted a good, strong, hypoallergenic antiperspirant. Bad move. For one thing, I had to use so much of it that I had all of this nasty residue on my shirts that didn't come out in the wash. I had to put on gloves and rub the fabric vigorously in HOT water (ouch) before doing a regular wash load.

Another issue was that I sweated anyway, profusely! The products didn't even put a dent in the perspiration (and, of course, they did nothing for the rest of my body). The last issue was that I smelled anyway and even smelled worse with certain products.

I've reconciled myself to the sweating, but I use a Thai stick that controls the odor quite nicely, and I put powder around my crotch and related areas in warm weather. I think that this is the best I can do. Heh. I'm sensitive to the cold, so moving to the Gobi Desert definitely is not in the cards for me.

I can relate. I'm allergic to antiperspirants and quite a few deodorants. And one of the deodorants I tried made me smell worse. I'm now using Tom's of Maine, which seems to control odor pretty good.

Note: Do NOT use the Thai Stick AND Tom's of Maine at the same time. Phew! Stink-o-rama.