Quote from: Arch on July 14, 2013, 02:14:58 PM
I'm glad I paid out of pocket for mine. I didn't have the strength to wait for an insurance company to approve it. When a guy represses and delays for twenty years (as in my case), he can hit his limit very fast and need IMMEDIATE action.

If things go my way in the next year, I'll get the job I have my eye on, and insurance will cover my bottom surgery. I hate to think how many hoops I'll have to jump through for phallo...and there's still the academic work schedule to keep in mind. I can't take time off from teaching, so everything HAS to happen during breaks.

Do you have an idea of how your insurance company does this? Have you a list of surgeons that they consider acceptable, for example? Do they have a procedure in place if you don't like any of the surgeons the company will cover? Do they cover travel and accommodations if you have to have surgery outside your immediate area? And so on.

Well, for one, you have to be 18 or older (I'm 23) and for top surgery, you have to have a note from a "qualified mental health professional" (I've only had 3 sessions with my gender therapist thus far). I need to make a few phone calls to ask all those questions. Since I'm not even -close- to being able to get a note about it, I've just decided to put it off for now. (I'm also TERRIFIED of talking on the phone; I have really high anxiety about it).

Quote from: Rin on July 14, 2013, 03:09:00 PM
(I'm also TERRIFIED of talking on the phone; I have really high anxiety about it).

That's something you have to work at gradually, perhaps. I used to delay phone calls for days or weeks because I was so phone-shy. After quite a bit of work (and a major vocal change as well, haha), I don't mind it so much. But I've found that transition was a huge motivator. I knew I needed certain things to happen, and the only way to accomplish them or at least get the ball rolling was by calling people. Now I can make phone calls almost effortlessly. But it took a lot of headshrinking and analysis and positive self-talk.

Quote from: Rin on July 14, 2013, 03:09:00 PM
I'm also TERRIFIED of talking on the phone; I have really high anxiety about it.

Is it your voice that's the problem, or the "when the hell am I supposed to say something, crap was I supposed to respond to that" thing?

Quote from: Soren on July 14, 2013, 05:17:33 PM
Is it your voice that's the problem, or the "when the hell am I supposed to say something, crap was I supposed to respond to that" thing?

No, it's just generalized anxiety. I've actually got the voice part down Everyone I speak with on the phone says "Sir" until I tell them my (current) legal name -.-
I just have phone anxiety; I always have. I couldn't even order pizza until you could do it online xD I've just got an anxiety disorder.

Quote from: Rin on July 14, 2013, 05:51:09 PM
No, it's just generalized anxiety. I've actually got the voice part down Everyone I speak with on the phone says "Sir" until I tell them my (current) legal name -.-
I just have phone anxiety; I always have. I couldn't even order pizza until you could do it online xD I've just got an anxiety disorder.

Ah. I know what you mean. Well, not passing on the phone, but the can't even order pizza part. My phone is just an expensive pocket watch.