Quote from: Vicky on November 21, 2013, 10:25:56 PM
We do in fact have a caste system stacked against the non-op folks in many areas. I have however told several other posties to use that idea for a dilator and leave it up there!!
Seriously! Years ago, around the time I was part of the staff here (I was a chat moderator,) I was active in the non-op forum (as active as I ever am) and the "concern trolling" was awful! "Have you thought about X situation? It will be impossible to navigate without SRS!"
QuoteIf you have total numbness in the entire area, and Brassard was your surgeon, he needs to be told about it, and asked if there is anything he could do, and I know a girl for whom he did get the areas back to operation, but it took her several months beyond the revision surgery to become fully operational.
The idea of revision surgery terrifies me. I don't think that mentally I can deal with that, at least not at this time. I might feel differently if and when I win this battle with clinical depression (it began nearly two years ago, after my E dose was slashed.)
Quote from: JordanBlue on November 21, 2013, 11:10:29 PM
So, they said if you remained non-op they would cut off your HRT meds? I wasn't aware doctors had the power to do that. And they pushed you to have SRS, BA, and FFS?
They carefully stayed away from directly saying that, but it was always hinted. Lengthy questioning about things that simply wasn't their domain of concern, e.g. exactly how I dressed on a daily basis, remarks about how I should be planning for SRS, etc. However, the official reason for all of the HRT changes was that I was a high risk patient, particularly for DVT. It's BS - when I started this I was 33 and in good health (I'm now 39 and in good health.) In addition to the constant dose adjustments (on average my E dose was changed once per quarter for the three years I was on HRT pre-op) I regularly had problems with them being overbooked - they would want to see me in three months and I'd try to book that as I was checking out of the appointment but they were already booked solid for 1-4 weeks longer than the target - and they would *not* extend my prescription to cover the gap due to the DVT concern. Running out of E regularly isn't fun and I wanted that to end - I knew that post-op that behavior could not be justified.
They (and this part includes my therapist) did clearly feel that SRS was mandatory but did not support their patients having BA and FFS. I got a lot of rhetoric from them about how the long-term risks of BA and FFS for trans women are unknown, etc. Reading between the lines, "it's too dangerous."
I've written this before but to save you from having to dig through ancient posts, my providers were very critical of the fact that I wasn't a hetero femme woman. I didn't do skirts and heels (though I now do sometimes,) rode motorcycles, and identify as lesbian, all of which were matters for which I received criticism from my therapist and first two endocrinologists.
Quote from: Beth Andrea on November 21, 2013, 11:28:39 PM
That could be a malpractice case. At the least, I think it would be unethical.
I'm not a lawyer, medical person, or even a snot-nosed kid. I'm just spouting off a thought.
I understand that there isn't much to be done on that front, though I have filed a complaint with the state board about my first endocrinologist's requirement for regular orchidometer exams as a condition to (continue to) receive HRT. It's an unnecessary genital exam which, for many of us (myself included,) is triggering as hell. A dear friend pointed out that unnecessary genital exams are sexual assault, which helped me deal with my feelings about it. I also know that she requires it for other patients.
I only have my own recollection of the conversations at the appointments for most of it, though my wife did attend a few, including the one in which my first endo asserted that adding an anti-androgen would not do anything and that nine months on a very low E-only dose (it was less than the Endocrine Society's guideline minimum for pre-op treatment) producing no physical effects proved that I was one of the individuals for whom no HRT dose would ever be effective.
For the record, I finally got HRT that began to cause physical changes just under five months before I had SRS and I had SRS four months short of five years since starting therapy for this round of transition (I had previous, failed attempts to transition going back to when I was nineteen, in 1994.)
