My wonderful therapist recently gave me my letter, so off I went to see my new physician on Thursday!

Wait, what?  She's out?  Won't be here until October.  Okay, no worries.  Oh...wait, my insurance won't pay for a physical AND discussing my thyroid's history?  Erm...okay.  I'm not terribly surprised.  What?  You don't know what SID stands for?  And you're a doctor?!  IT'S BASIC SIG, FFS!

And you've no idea what the next step is for gender transitioning?  No one at this clinic knows?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?  You have no transgender patients whatsoever?  This is Atlanta, FFS!  The city is covered with LGBTs!  A bloody rainbow arcs over the entire city for the entirety of Pride month!

Fine.  Whatever.  Let's just do blood analysis.  Ah.  You're only going to do TSH, general chemistry, a CBC, and total cholesterol.  You're killing me, Smalls.  Killing me.  Did it ever occur to you to, I don't know, maybe check my hormone levels pre-everything?  I mean, I'm no doctor, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express never.  I mean, the charity clinic I went to in rural Georgia even checked my hormone levels when I forgot to shave one morning.  In rural Georgia.  What does that say about you?

[/rant]

Sorry.  Just needed to get that out of my system.  There's a Facebook group I'm in, for trans and allies, some of the guys have made recommendations for doctors in the area.  Probably should have asked them first.  Then again, I do need a regular GP for regular GP stuff.  Guess I was just hoping to get things started PDQ because my gender dysphoria is getting worse every day.  Doesn't help that Aunt Flo dropped by to kick me in the metaphorical goolies.  *le sigh*

You actually don't need hormone levels tested before testosterone...mine were not tested. There's a lot of trans guys in the Atlanta area. A. Lot.

I live in Atlanta and go to Intown Primary Care.  I was very happy with my first visit, and my other visits.
My only complaint is that 1. I dont have insurane. 2. Its a 45 mile drive from Allatoona.

Anyone used http://www.transhealthinitiative.org/ in ATL? I called my regular doc, and he's never treated a trans patient, but said he's willing to try for my HRT. If he backs out, that's where I was planning to go. It's over an hour away from me, but they should know what they're doing.

-Jay

Trans Health Initiative isn't taking new patients.  I contacted them probably a couple months ago and was turned away.  Feminist Health Initiative isn't taking patients, either.  I was surprised the Morehouse Medical Association was accepting new patients, which is where I went on 17 July.

I've got an appointment with Absolute Care in...Buckhead, I think?  I don't remember.  I just know that they have two people there that work primarily with trans persons.  My appointment is on 12 August.  I just hope I can make the drive there.  I've got an anxiety disorder that affects me mostly when I drive.

This is going to be very interesting...

No idea if the service is offered in your area, but where I live, you can get FTM HRT at Planned Parenthood. It seemed like a somewhat unlikely source when I found out about it, so I'm not sure how well-known it is that they provide this service. Hoping this might help.

Sorry to hear about all the frustration and being surrounded by clueless medical staff.

Good luck with everything! If I was in ATL I would totally offer to drive you to your appointment.

The Planned Parenthood closest to me was staffed by people who used insensitive language and were uncomfortable enough with my body that just getting a pap smear made me feel like a circus exhibit. I've done volunteer work at the same location, and my opinion didn't soften any. I love Planned Parenthood, but it's such a large organization that you have to evaluate individual offices as self-contained entities. I did try to get HRT through them in 2009 or 2010, but I was told that no local offices offered treatment for transgender individuals. I don't like wading through abortion protesters to get to a doctor, so that was probably for the best.

I spent more time in the Atlanta area than anywhere else growing up, and the visibility and acceptance of trans people there still affects how my blood family treats me. I'm sorry to see that getting adequate medical care is so hard. I hope you can plow through any misgivings or other barriers so you can make it to your appointment.

I am the other way, MtF, but my endo wasn't worried about pre treatment hormone levels based on normal development etc. Since my primary doc already supplied a set of recent labs we delved right into HT. Monitoring started at six months when refining doses down.

And it just gets better and better...

Someone from AbCare phoned me yesterday to tell me that my appointment had been changed from 8am to 2pm, that the one doctor who specialises in transgender patients is not accepting new patients.  When I asked to see the nurse practitioner that also specialises, I was told that my insurance wouldn't pay for any services performed by her.  I explained, while trying to stay calm, why I wanted to see Dr C, that I was pre-everything and that was why Jon* made enquiries on my behalf before he made the appointment with Dr C.

"Oh, Dr B can handle that, and if he has any questions he can ask H about it."

That's...that's great.  Change my appointment without asking me, thereby disrupting not only my schedule but the schedule of the person who was going to come with me, but now cannot.  Oh, and while you're at it, lie to me about how this doctor supposedly isn't taking new patients, then give me a doctor who knows sod all about gender transitioning.  That's just wonderful.

I'm trying to be positive, I really am, but I'm getting sick of this rubbish.  I'm going to keep pushing and I will fight if I have to, and I will bloody well win.  If they give me any more crap, I will call upon my Gays and they will descend upon Buckhead in a fury of rainbows, unicorns, and glitter, and their vengeance shall be swift and fabulous.

Bwahahahahahah. I love the last part of your post. But seriously Dr. Perry at Intown Primary Care is awesome and so is his PA. The staff if great except I use a Service Dog and the phlebotomist (sp?) is afraid of dogs and always makes my blood draws a pain.

Yup... thats georgia.  I'm a good few hours away from you, but I haven't even attempted trans care in the state.  If its that bad in Atlanta I can't imagine how hard it'd be where I'm at.  I still make the trek up to my doc in Philly once a year or so.  Hope to be moving away from this southern hell soon. 

Quote from: GnomeKid on August 09, 2014, 10:52:02 PM
Yup... thats georgia.  I'm a good few hours away from you, but I haven't even attempted trans care in the state.  If its that bad in Atlanta I can't imagine how hard it'd be where I'm at.  I still make the trek up to my doc in Philly once a year or so.  Hope to be moving away from this southern hell soon.

There are a few places in ATL that are great, but as stated, aren't accepting new patients. Dr. Perry is/was and his PA will see you but they still bill under Dr. Perry seeing you. They draw the blood there, even though they send it to LabCorb (I hate them) to be counted or whatever, and the entire staff (except the phlebotomist) is excellent. Cross my heart, hope to die. They use your preferred name in every visit except the first one (where they call by last name if they can, and then ask your preferred name) and I called and got in to see Dr.Perry within a week. We went through some intensive questioning for other reasons (FTM notwithstanding, though there were lots of questions about that) and then I gave them my therapist letter (they do not accept Informed Consent, though I didn't push it as I DO have a therapist and a therapist letter) and they called in my script right there.

If whoever you're seeing is still jerking you around, I suggest giving them a call. They're right off Ponce de Leon near the Chipolte/Kroger/Paris on Ponce/Greens Liquor store area.

Well, the problem is that hardly anyone accepts Medicare, which is what I'm on thanks to my disability [anxiety disorder with depression].  You can imagine how much more limited I am with that.

Appointment is tomorrow.  I have to be there by 1.30pm so I can fill out forms and such.  Already was rung up by their insurance person who said there was a problem.  The problem was that they'd already put me down as male and Medicare has me as otherwise.  Even when I explained my name change in March, that I only got SSA and Medicare updated recently, the nice lady still referred to me as Mr Amadeus.  WIN!

Now I just wish I had someone to go with me.  Le sigh.

South Florida has been a nightmare finding resources for Trans*. Literally, there was barley anything for me to pick from.

5 therapists (2 that worked with adults which 1 of them was not taking new clients)
2 endo I don't know yet if they are taking new clients so, I'll see when I get to that point.
I'm consider myself to be lucky to have DR Garramone in my own backyard lol so this one I'm fine with.

UPDATE!

My new GP works for Morehouse Medical, and he's talking to the staff endo and a surgeon.  He's determined to help me transition.  So, yay!  A bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

So, my doctor made the referral to an endo and a surgeon within Morehouse, right?  That was in October.  It's December and I hadn't heard anything, so I popped over to check out their walk-in hours [I've got weird flu-like symptoms, anyway] and I asked about the referrals.

Turns out I hadn't heard anything because my doctor told the referral lady that I had Humana.  I don't.  I have Medicare.  So I sat in the referral office with the girl and we laughed together while she contacted the surgeon, the endo, and tried to get in touch with the ob-gyn [no joy there, but it's Friday, whaddya expect?]  Then she handed me a printout of the referrals so far.  Now I have appointments on 29 December and 7 January.

YAAAAAAAAY!