I attended an appointment today with a Psychiatrist who was supposed to have been involved with the GID clinic that operated at the hospital in 1988. This guy is also a pain management specialist and I was referred to him by my pain specialist. There was some talk that this guy should be able to take of the pain issues and the gender stuff and it started because I asked my pain guy what he though the chances are that I would get a reduction in my pain with less dysphoria from beginning to transition
To say I didn't like this guy is an understatement. I got quite irrigated at times because he clearly didn't know what he was talking about. He asked me at one point what my sexual fantasies were as a ten year....are you kidding? I shot him down for that and asked him how in the hell that is relevant today. He said he actually wanted to know if I saw myself as male or female from a sexual fantasy point of view and from that point on I made him give me an example of the kind of answer he was after.
After an hour and a half he told me the Diagnosis was Gender Dysphoria and that he really couldn't do much to help me and that I had to wait and see the specialist clinic, he felt I was "normal" and handling my pain and Dysphoria very well. But he couldn't help me...was I ever pissed or what...turns out he has very little experience with gender stuff and is going to write to the Gender Clinic Psych advising of the diagnosis, he came up with and send a copy to me, in the hope this might speed things up for me.
He asked a lot of stuff that I didn't think was that relevant and had a habit of wandering off the chosen topic...he had a terrible way of phrasing questions...very open ended but totally ambiguous. I thanked him for his time and came away feeling slightly dirty...like I had been probed by the Titanic and none to gently either.
For what ever difference it makes he is the third medical professional to diagnose me with Gender Dysphoria...great...a lot of good that does me. Sorry if I sound angry about this it is because I am, this Psychiatrist I saw took an hour an half to tell me he couldn't help me after giving me the Spanish inquisition where he could have told me all that up front...I didn't want a diagnosis from him unless he was able to treat me but I got it anyway...I guess he thought he was being helpful and after all that time the least he could do was a diagnosis.
Frustrates me no end...he was a nice enough guy but not sure what the point was...he was never going to help with the gender stuff and couldn't do anything about the pain stuff. He told me in the first 15 minutes that I was never getting my pump out and would always have chronic pain...so tell me something I don't already know...the aim was for a reduction and removal only at the best possible outcome...not an expectation
Sarah T
I had a similar experience a few years ago. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who work as intake counselors for trans people who shouldn't be allowed near us. I hope your future experiences are with people who have a clue.
I'm not sure what your situation is, but if you're after HRT perhaps you can take that diagnosis(s) interstate to Dr Hayes in Sydney and get it? I know he has patients from interstate.
So I thought I would update this thread now that I have the actual report from the Psychiatrist.
Where do I start, some of the basic information was just wrong...had my father dead at 77 living in Australia...he was surprised when I told him this today via scott Skype...oh yeah, one of the statements he makes talks about someone called Scott...the word should have been skype not Scott. As I move down though the report there is stuff in it he has just plain fabricated because I have no idea where he got the information. He has taken some of things I have said out of context and is some cases I have no idea where he got it. The comment that really started the alarm bells ringing is when he used the term "Hare lip" to describe my congenital cleft lip, the term is not only 20 years out of date but is also grossly insulting. At one point under the heading "Insight" he wrote and I quote
"He showed considerable insight into the issues for him with gender-dysphoria but it is also an issue that throughout the history he emphasised symptomatology to promote his acceptability for gender reassignment program acceptance"
Are you kidding me...this Dr and I use the term loosely was quite targeted with his questioning and I think my comment at the time was, I felt like I had been probed by the Titanic. I answered truthfully every question he asked me...If anyone was pushing an agenda it was him. I never once mentioned that I wanted SRS..I have not told any medical professional that I want surgery. It is not something I say and all through the report he refers to my wanting SRS...He fails to even acknowledge the two years of counselling that I had for the child abuse stuff and goes on to say this is why I am having nightmares. How can you state that this stuff has not been dealt with properly...he said at one point I went to seek SRS when I was 19...at 19 I didn't even know what SRS was and that is not what I sought help to do...I had no idea what I wanted other than to make "it" all stop.
At the end he gives me a diagnosis of gender dysphoria but to be perfectly honest I wouldn't wipe my bum with it as its already covered in crap! I am shocked at the level of this considering he touts himself as a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist I would have thought he could have at least got his time line correct and the events in the correct order let alone examining the stuff he just plain fabricated to fill in the missing "bits" of his narrative and finally his obsession with SRS which we never discussed other than to say I have made (Edit: replaced word "to" with "no")no decision either way.
I really hope that my experience with the next Psychiatrist I speak to is better but of course now I am naturally going to be super cautious about what I say to him, how I say it, what information I disclose and so on. This psychiatrist thought I might like to send a copy of his letter to Dr Lyons to help with the referral...I have no intention of showing it to him at least not at the start
I am not going to let this worry me, I was open and honest with him, answering all his questions as honestly as I could. I left out a lot of stuff to do with the Dysphoria mainly because he didn't ask or it wasn't relevant to what we were talking about. Interestingly he said we had good rapport, not quite how I saw it...I was fairly annoyed with the guy as I felt some of his questions were not overly relevant and as a result I didn't feel like I had any real rapport with him. Part of the reason was also that he didn't really appear to be listening to me. When you see the timeline clearly he wasn't paying a huge amount of attention to detail.
??? ???
Sarah T
It's so disappointing to hear that. I was beginning to think Australia wasn't as bad as I'd feared years ago. It reflects badly on the entire medical profession that people like this are allowed to continue.
I've caused myself a great deal of difficulty not trusting doctors and at the end of it I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do or not. I've not actually had any trouble with them, but perhaps its because of the way I went about it. I still don't trust them.
I hope you manage to find a way though it.
Quote from: AnonyMs on November 13, 2015, 12:52:51 AM
It's so disappointing to hear that. I was beginning to think Australia wasn't as bad as I'd feared years ago. It reflects badly on the entire medical profession that people like this are allowed to continue.
I've caused myself a great deal of difficulty not trusting doctors and at the end of it I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do or not. I've not actually had any trouble with them, but perhaps its because of the way I went about it. I still don't trust them.
I hope you manage to find a way though it.
The fortunate thing about this is that despite the guys credentials he is not part of the mainstream treatment available in South Australia for those with gender issues. There is gross underfunding in the system so when an opportunity arises as presented to me by my pain management specialist, I took it. My pain specialist told me this guy was involved in the gender reassignment clinic running at the hospital before it was closed and knew his stuff. When I researched him before seeing him I found only vague references to the hospital program which finished in 1988. So in 1988 he may well have had some knowledge but he certainly hasn't kept up to date. I thought he may well have kept his hand in and be able to help me through the system...maybe 20 years ago ne might have. Although I can find no reference to him in connection to anything relating to gender...so my pain guy could have got it wrong about this guy. I think I had a rather unique experience...I sure hope never to repeat it.
Sarah T