Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hey everyone,

I dont use these forums too much so you can say i am kinda new. Anyways, I just got back from my Dr and we are working on the Pre Approval coverage from OHIP and he mentioned that OHIP only covers the basic surgery.

Can anyone give any price ranges on the additional items that I would have to pay for? I am aiming for the Colon, but not sure if i have the funds.

~Finch

Something which  would be helpful is knowing the surgeon(s) you are considering. I am not sure if Brassard does this surgery but if he is on your list, you should be able to contact his office for a price breakdown. Out of the country I suspect you will  need to cover all of the costs but I don't know that for a fact. It depends on if your surgeon is recognized as part of your medical coverage.

Quote from: Dena on November 24, 2017, 02:03:18 PM
Something which  would be helpful is knowing the surgeon(s) you are considering. I am not sure if Brassard does this surgery but if he is on your list, you should be able to contact his office for a price breakdown. Out of the country I suspect you will  need to cover all of the costs but I don't know that for a fact. It depends on if your surgeon is recognized as part of your medical coverage.

Yes, sorry I will be seeing Brassard, and I have tried contacting 2 times and i am still waiting for a reply going on 4 months.

I've personally found that Dr Brassard's clinic is not too responsive for basic inquiries...however I believe that this is because their staff prioritize their resources towards applications, intake and liaison with referring doctors. 

Living in Ontario, my understanding is that OHIP covers the surgery, but not the extraneous travel or accommodation costs.  OHIP recently allowed GCS to be performed outside Canada, but the same restrictions apply.   As for what surgery they cover, it was explained to me that it will always be based on medical necessities, so if you want the colon based procedure, it would only be covered if the penile inversion is not surgically feasible. 

I hope this helps.

I, too, had to wait several months for a reply to a request for some information via their website's contact form. Perhaps they don't have many staff who reply to questions in English.

As far as I know, OHIP will pay for the surgery, but you have to get yourself there. I'm not sure how many days of convalescence they will cover and whether that coverage fluctuates in and out of province. Since there's presently no GCS being performed in Ontario, they seem to have been very accomodating by paying for out-of-country surgeries in the last little while. It'll be interesting to see if that continues if they namage to establish a surgery centre in Ontario as they are trying to do.

Perhaps phoning Brassard's clinic might yield quicker results. Let us know if it does!

Thx for the replies.

Once I get the pre-approval papers mailed in and response back, i am supposed to get some direct contact info to contact them fast. By then I should know more info on what is covered.

As for me to get there, I am not 100% to just travel there as fastest way is by train and even then it will take several hours living northern Ontario and having to travel south, then est to get there.

My worry is I want to (Hopefully) get it around March 2018, but if it requires me to pay funds out of my pocket in the thousands, that's where i wont have the funds to do so being in last year of college.

~Finch

I will try and post more info as i get it as well for those wondering on this topic as there is zero info online.

Be patient! Being the only place in Canada to get the surgery, it can take time to get the process started. I submitted my referral in May,and phoned at the beginning of June to to see if they had received it. They are often items missed or more information needed, so the process can take some time. I didn't feel that things started to happen until late fall. Then, all of a sudden it was January and I got a phone call with an offer of a date.

Getting the referral in from you doctors is the most critical. Having them complete is important. Mine was missing a number of things and this added time and expense to my process. I had to fly home to complete a couple of appointments.

Once you have a date, the staff look after all things in Montreal. Booking the Bed and Breakfast, local transportation in Montreal( you will be treated like a celebrity) surgery and recovery. Two days at the B and B, two nights in the hospital, and six nights, if all is well, in the Recovery Centre. Great Staff and service. I loved my time their. My group was great and we got along wonderfully. There were a number of girls from Ontario there and they seem to have everything I did covered. Transportation
to and from Montreal was on us, but while in care everything was covered. The B and B is great! I lived it there.

As far as a different procedure than the inversion type: I cannot offer any information about that I would assume that there would be some cost deference.

Again, be patient. The started is getting all the necessary components of your referral in. Everything will start at that point. I found that once that happened and you are in their system, communication improved. I phone my different contacts rather than emailed. Worked for me.

Lastly, the one thing I found was that if did no good trying to force or push. Positive contact, good questions, and humour really helped.

Good luck, and all the best! Hugs

Dr Brassard does not perform the colon vaginoplasty. your only options would be out of the country. Ohip works with Dr Kamol and Dr Chett in that case.

Quote from: finchy101 on November 24, 2017, 01:49:13 PM
he mentioned that OHIP only covers the basic surgery.

This caught my eye cause I haven't done a lot of the research yet. By basic surgery, is that any of the top/bottom surgeries, or is it only a specific few that are covered?  ??? so many things to look through online and only a select few are actually helpful.

Quote from: aves on November 27, 2017, 09:00:25 PM
This caught my eye cause I haven't done a lot of the research yet. By basic surgery, is that any of the top/bottom surgeries, or is it only a specific few that are covered?  ??? so many things to look through online and only a select few are actually helpful.

Sadly, I am not sure. I sent an email to Ontario Rainbow Health for some more info while I am still getting the papers all done so i know more information.

As for going out of the Country, I am not 100% sure that will work for me, as I will be doing it while still in college between semesters.

If you check the ohip website www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/srs/   It tells you what is covered

Okay, Got a Response from Ontario Rainbow Health and this is what they said,

So, let me try to clarify what OHIP will and will not cover. OHIP will cover the cost of the procedure, and you will not pay anything out of pocket for that. If you are going to Montreal, that price will also include the cost of staying at the recovery house there as you recover from surgery. for vaginoplasty I believe that is 10 days, but the GRS clinic will clarify when they send you your pre-surgical package.

What OHIP will NOT cover is travel. You will need to coordinate that yourself. The Montreal clinic staff will pick you up from the train/bus/airport and take it from there, but you do need to get yourself to Montreal. OHIP will also NOT cover the cost of any support people who may be traveling with you to Montreal. those people/person would need to pay to stay with you at the recovery house.

I know that travel is prohibitively expensive for some people, so just so you know I have only ever heard of the following travel funds to support people to get to surgery: Northern Travel Grant (wouldn't really apply to Innisfil unfortunately), ODB support for people on OW or ODSP, and Hope AIR. Besides that, the only other way I have heard of people getting funded to travel for surgery is through crowdsourcing (like asking friends to donate, or setting up an indigogo page).

Quote from: finchy101 on December 04, 2017, 06:30:08 PM
Okay, Got a Response from Ontario Rainbow Health and this is what they said,

So, let me try to clarify what OHIP will and will not cover. OHIP will cover the cost of the procedure, and you will not pay anything out of pocket for that. If you are going to Montreal, that price will also include the cost of staying at the recovery house there as you recover from surgery. for vaginoplasty I believe that is 10 days, but the GRS clinic will clarify when they send you your pre-surgical package.

What OHIP will NOT cover is travel. You will need to coordinate that yourself. The Montreal clinic staff will pick you up from the train/bus/airport and take it from there, but you do need to get yourself to Montreal. OHIP will also NOT cover the cost of any support people who may be traveling with you to Montreal. those people/person would need to pay to stay with you at the recovery house.

I know that travel is prohibitively expensive for some people, so just so you know I have only ever heard of the following travel funds to support people to get to surgery: Northern Travel Grant (wouldn't really apply to Innisfil unfortunately), ODB support for people on OW or ODSP, and Hope AIR. Besides that, the only other way I have heard of people getting funded to travel for surgery is through crowdsourcing (like asking friends to donate, or setting up an indigogo page).

That's actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, honestly. I would qualify for the Northern Ontario Travel Grant because of where I live so this might not be as expensive as I thought. Thank you for posting about your findings!