Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Sorry I haven't posted an intro yet but I was on these forums a number of years back. I have a slightly unusual problem. So here it is.

I transitioned about 10 years ago, so I've been living as a woman for a while. I haven't had surgery yet and I'm not out as TS at work and I'd rather keep it that way. Due to a medical issue it looks like I'll need to get an orchi and since it's medically necessary, it looks like insurance will cover it and honestly I'm glad about the whole thing. So the problem is that I'll need to take some time off work to heal and I'm not sure what to tell them without outing myself. I'm thinking I'll tell them I'm having surgery and if they ask why, I would tell them it's private.

I wanted to see if other people had any better suggestions.

Thanks
Melissa

Here's information from the US Department of Labor about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA):

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28.pdf

If you qualify for FMLA leave, the law protects your right to an unpaid medical leave of up to twelve weeks for "a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job."

Through the DOL website, you can access the forms necessary to submit to your employer to request the leave.  There's a lot of latitude.  Your doctor doesn't need to be very specific about the reasons.  He/she just needs to certify that you have a "serious health condition" and that the leave is medically necessary.

Hope this helps!

Welcome to Susan's Place. Often surgery would be enough but if they press, you could always say female surgery without really lying. If they press you could say sterilization and that would most likely shut them up. I would rather not talk about it is a bit more polite and still gets the message across.

Most important is it's not required that you talk about every aspect of you medical treatment. Some people do but most don't. The one issue that might happen is if you use company insurance, the company might get word of it that way. They shouldn't spread the word around but some people might know. I suspect I might have been outed that way many years ago after the insurance company paid for SRS.

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Quote from: Dena on April 13, 2016, 04:17:35 PM

Most important is it's not required that you talk about every aspect of you medical treatment. Some people do but most don't.

Dena makes a very good point.  Intrusive or over-zealous employers sometimes ask employees who request medical leave to sign a broad authorization form that allows the employer to get all of your medical records.  If your employer gives you a form like that, don't sign that! 

The employer is only entitled to information sufficient to evaluate your need for medical leave.  And for purposes of FMLA, sufficient information mostly just means the doc's certification of the existence of a serious heath condition and your need for leave.

Quote from: Dena on April 13, 2016, 04:17:35 PM
I would rather not talk about it is a bit more polite and still gets the message across.

Thanks, that's the kind of thing I was looking for. It's a small company (only 10 or so people) and there's not really a reason to do FMLA. I figure I'll take a few days paid time off and I'm doing it right before a weekend. Then I'll work from home for a bit after that, so that's why I need to say something because I'll be healing.

In regards to the reading material, I'm quite familiar with much of it. I've just been out of the trans community for a while so I'm not exactly sure what's been updated since then.

Thanks
Melissa

I don't see that you'd need to go into much detail, and surely a doctor's certificate simply saying you had an operation or medical procedure would be sufficient?

If you want a cover story, a "lie that will fly" so to speak, tell them that you are having an inguinal hernia repaired.

It is the same part of the body, probably about the same recovery time, etc. etc.

Just an update. I had my surgery and for the most part, nobody asked details. When someone did, I just said I'd rather not talk about it and that was that. Thanks for all the support.

Quote from: melissagirl on May 18, 2016, 04:24:30 PM
Just an update. I had my surgery and for the most part, nobody asked details. When someone did, I just said I'd rather not talk about it and that was that. Thanks for all the support.

Congratulations  :)


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