Quote from: Felix on September 11, 2014, 10:06:10 PM
It can help to seek out places that offer indigent care and payment plans, as they are more used to getting what they can and providing whatever treatment is most necessary.

I even tried that route, but the problem is none offer SRS. I literally went through the entire listings in the U.S in both gender surgery and plastic surgery, nothing. My fingers are worn out from all the phone calls and E-mails. I wish I had the guts to remove it myself and make emergency surgery mandatory to repair the damage. I have not gotten drunk in 4 years now. I believe tonight that record will fall. 

Quote from: Jessica Merriman on September 11, 2014, 10:12:37 PM
I even tried that route, but the problem is none offer SRS. I literally went through the entire listings in the U.S in both gender surgery and plastic surgery, nothing. My fingers are worn out from all the phone calls and E-mails. I wish I had the guts to remove it myself and make emergency surgery mandatory to repair the damage. I have not gotten drunk in 4 years now. I believe tonight that record will fall. 

Uh-uh you don't want to go there sweetheart, trust me on this! I'm here for you sis, we can talk and get through this!

Yeah, don't drink. That isn't going to help.

Drinking to excess never makes problems go away.  It will just end up adding to the list of your problems.

If you drink, please make sure it's for the right reasons.  Trust me on this one- hangovers SUCK.

Quote from: Jill F on September 11, 2014, 10:51:34 PM
Trust me on this one- hangovers SUCK.

I am sort of blessed. I have never had one no matter what. Might come in handy again. 

Big hugs, Jessica.  Big hugs.

No booze Jessica! 

You are one determined lady - keep your hope up and keep trying sweetie. Don't go back to the old ways, you know that there is nothing for you there.

Jessica I'm so sad to hear of this trouble your having. As someone cleared for SRS who is having trouble with scheduling I fully understand where you are coming from, as I had the same problem just finding a surgeon that will take insurance. I even found two close to me but they told me this: "Sorry, we're just not set up to take insurance." So I sympathize wholly. I do know that the Transgender Center in Miami does take both medicare and medicaid tho. Might want to try them. It's a 6-8 month waiting period tho from your first appointment which is why I am again looking for another surgeon.

Sincerely I know I won't survive another year without SRS. And just making it that long will be a struggle. It's a matter of life and death for me. I just can't go on living with what's down there too much longer. I'm praying every night I find another surgeon soon. For I know what awaits me if I don't.

Tomorrow will be sent scouring the web and on the phone. And of course I'll bookmark this thread and keep y'all informed if I find another surgeon.

Jess all my hopes hun.
Huggles
Ally

Even the VA is in on the sham as well. You'd think that after being shot and almost getting killed by IEDs for your country they'd at least make you whole. But all they offer is hormone care at the moment, IIRC. No SRS or other surgery.

What I find disheartening is we have 2 GCS doctors that are trans* there selves.

They should know how hard it is for trans* to get the surgery, just to turn there backs on the community.

How's that for all there talk about equality over the years.

It's so bad that money again is over someone's happiness.

Quote from: mrs izzy on September 12, 2014, 07:41:33 AM
What I find disheartening is we have 2 GCS doctors that are trans* there selves.

They should know how hard it is for trans* to get the surgery, just to turn there backs on the community.

How's that for all there talk about equality over the years.

It's so bad that money again is over someone's happiness.

In all fairness though, insurance companies (including the Government) are terrible when it comes to payment for services.

They will negotiate down your rate plus they take forever to pay. With regular doctors I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been sent collection letters because the doctors couldn't get insurance to pay. I had to run around and get everything done before they paid. And this is not some fly by night insurance either, it's supposedly a "cadillac" plan offered to local Government employees. The only one that I get no trouble with is the prescription plan. Most are $0 copay or $5 copay. However when I was prescribed diabetes meds they told me they don't cover that. The primary health insurance does through mail order. At that point I just said "screw it" and decided to manage my diabetes with diet and exercise which has worked out extremely well (even my doctor is amazed, but he is a pill pusher).

They also didn't cover fertility treatment until they tested me and found out I was part of the reason. Even so they only covered two cycles of IVF and even then they did only cover the cheap stuff, which was the monitoring and drugs. It took us 6 to conceive.

Wow... just ...

Wow ...

I don't even plan to have SRS done ... and I still find this incredibly depressing, and strangely distressing even though it doesn't affect me. It troubles me that the medical industry and politicians don't seem to get that trans people have a high suicide rate for a reason. In my mind, we may be the ones pulling the trigger so to speak ... but I feel society is responsible for putting the gun in our hands.

One thing I've noticed since starting transitioning is that our biggest problem isn't really being transgender. It's society as a whole. Everything from pressure to conform from those immediately around us, to those who would gladly murder us with their own hands, to politicians who use us to drum up support for their party but don't actually do anything to help us, as well as those who go out of their way to make our lives even more difficult, to medical treatment to...


I don't like to blame others for problems I face ... but I'm really starting to feel like nearly our entire society from the top down is killing us, and most simply don't care. A few would even be happy knowing this.

Jessica, we don't talk much, but I find your presence on the boards here to be extremely supportive, and you're often a voice of optimism when people need it most. You're extremely sweet, and beautiful on top of that! If you ever need someone to talk to, please add my name to the list of others who like you and look up to you and wouldn't mind if you need someone to say whatever you want to.

Quote from: Amy The Bookworm on September 12, 2014, 09:13:53 AM

Jessica, we don't talk much, but I find your presence on the boards here to be extremely supportive, and you're often a voice of optimism when people need it most. You're extremely sweet, and beautiful on top of that! If you ever need someone to talk to, please add my name to the list of others who like you and look up to you and wouldn't mind if you need someone to say whatever you want to.

Seconded!

Not to be that stick in the mud.

Just was thinking as i do and sometimes it gets me in trouble.

How much of the current changes in gender id rules are a direct effect of the lack of doctors who will perform the GCS under medicare, medicaid? Kinda like a placebo jester.

Ok back in my corner.

I apologize for being so bitter about this everyone. Just imagine though the following hypothetical and tell me how long the public would put up with this.

As a Paramedic I respond to a Myocardial Infarction a legally recognized medical condition like Gender Dysphoria. Upon arrival I confirm they are having a heart attack by signs, symptoms and cardiac strip. I tell them that the I.V. line will be $20,000 an is not covered by Medicare or any insurance and payment must be made before treatment. Furthermore if you want Sublingual Nitro and Lidocaine you will have to have two letters from a Therapist and live one year as a normal healthy patient. Think the public would stand for this? I know this sounds extreme, but this is what they are telling us now. 

Quote from: Jessica Merriman on September 12, 2014, 03:18:08 PM
I apologize for being so bitter about this everyone. Just imagine though the following hypothetical and tell me how long the public would put up with this.

As a Paramedic I respond to a Myocardial Infarction a legally recognized medical condition like Gender Dysphoria. Upon arrival I confirm they are having a heart attack by signs, symptoms and cardiac strip. I tell them that the I.V. line will be $20,000 an is not covered by Medicare or any insurance and payment must be made before treatment. Furthermore if you want Sublingual Nitro and Lidocaine you will have to have two letters from a Therapist and live one year as a normal healthy patient. Think the public would stand for this? I know this sounds extreme, but this is what they are telling us now. 

Well, I certainly understand what you mean. I think that a lot of people feel the same way that you do. Plus, the fact that you work as a Paramedic, you see a lot of things that other people never will. That speaks volumes in my eyes as far as your viewpoint is concerned versus, say, someone who would have an opposite viewpoint, but had never worked in any sort of medical field whatsoever.

A big part of the problem is that the general (cis) public sees SRS as an optional cosmetic procedure. They don't realize the anguish that we go through and that 40% of us kill ourselves instead of foregoing the "cosmetic procedure."

The VA's attitude is also disgusting. They say they don't cover SRS because most trans don't get it. Well at 20k a surgery, duh!

I am thinking of doing something big. I am going to write and call Medicare and tell them since I have a legally recognized medical issue that I demand treatment and will pay any co pays or I will contact a legal center and file a Federal lawsuit against Medicare and every SRS surgeon as well for not providing and me adequate care for my condition. Too off the wall??  I am seriously pissed off! 

I also think that part of the problem is that the general (misinformed) public thinks that a "sex change operation" is something you can just get pretty much anywhere, much like a nose job.  I don't think that people realize that it is an incredibly specialized procedure and that there are only a handful of surgeons in the world, let alone the US that are qualified to do this. 

Most people think it's just "hack off your wiener" and *BAM*.

Quote from: Jessica Merriman on September 12, 2014, 03:58:42 PM
I am thinking of doing something big. I am going to write and call Medicare and tell them since I have a legally recognized medical issue that I demand treatment and will pay any co pays or I will contact a legal center and file a Federal lawsuit against Medicare and every SRS surgeon as well for not providing and me adequate care for my condition. Too off the wall??  I am seriously pissed off! 

Part of the problem is that there are not enough SRS surgeons.  Apparently they can all pretty much demand cash and stay busy enough to keep them in Champagne and caviar land.