Quote from: Rachael on December 22, 2007, 06:11:45 AM
were you mutilated at birth? that could be the difference in our treatment..
R

I suppose Rachael, humour is the only way to get through the situation...
I haven't had any NHS treatment even though I attended a London CX NHS Gender Clinic for over 6 years! I really hope you get much better treated with the NHS than I did.

So far the only treatment available to me has been private.....

As you saw from the list of people I posted who have attended Charing Cross GIC over the last few years it's not uncommon for people to get abused in the same way as I did.....

i was refering to your stated intersex condition... i was corrected at birth, which is why i wondered how extensive, and known your is condition was, as i was offered hrt as a corrective measure... but no word on grs yet apparently i must still go through gic for it!
R

Quote from: Rachael on December 22, 2007, 07:04:20 AM
i was refering to your stated intersex condition... i was corrected at birth, which is why i wondered how extensive, and known your is condition was, as i was offered hrt as a corrective measure... but no word on grs yet apparently i must still go through gic for it!
R

I see what you mean.......my problems were not of mixed genitalia like yours but I did have other problems while I was growing up. Some intersexed conditions (like mine) are mainly chromosome based and not as severe as yours may have been. My voice didn't break, my testicles were very small and I wasn't able to produce sperm.

I have had a lot of intersexed tests done at University hospital including chromosones and bone density scans..

Quote from: maragirlygirr on December 16, 2007, 04:37:07 AM
I would like to pose a view here, even though I do not agree with it.

No insurance or with insurance because TS isnt a covered condition:

In the US it is possible to start theraphy ($95USD a session twice a month)
2 Months later Get refferal to a Endo, and blood testing (Total around $800.00USD)
Prescriptions for Spiro and Estrogen ($100 each)
(recurring blood work at $800 a pop)
Real Life test (1 year) With 24 Therapist visits, however ongoing
FFS surgery (10kUSD-20KUSD)
Breast Augmentation ($7500USD plus expenses)
(Trip to psycholigist $100-$200USD for SRS approval letter)
SRS ($20kUSD Canada)

Don't idealize the treatment in the UK , for the most part as people laid out...its crap for trans services, because they DO have to pay for surgeries and HRT on their own. They have to go private in many cases.  It's not socialized free treatment.
Also you have to be very careful at the costs you are throwing out.  I am going to list my cost.  You will be surprised.  Take into account LGBT centers in many north american cities have been offering trans services recently (HRT and Therapy) for a very low cost. Also even though my insurance has an exclusion they have covered both. 
Also BA is not always required.  I am a Full A, which for my frame is acceptable, this is in a very short time, I am pushing into B territory, which would be ideal.  Also sometimes the cost is covered by insurance for things like therapy and HRT in the US, even when its not, if you live in a big city with a LGBT clinc, it is very cheap.  Seeing a therapist so often during the RLE is not required.  As far as my therapist sees it, if life is going well in your new role, you don't need to see her that often. 

So here is a more realistic rundown of services if you live in a city with a LGBT clinic in the US.  I am using my expenses. 


In the US it is possible to start theraphy ($80 once every two to three months, but this is a non-clinic practioner, the clinic practitioner would be about $25 for me)
HRT Doctors visits  including blood tests (Total around $0-$25 USD)
Prescriptions for Spiro and Estrogen ($15-20 each)
Real Life Experience (How many therapists visits vary.  I actually see my therapist once every two to three months now)
FFS surgery (10k USD-25k USD)
Breast Augmentation (Not always necessary)
(Trip to psycholigist $10-$200USD for SRS approval letter)
SRS ($16k-20kUSD Canada)

The cost...if you see...is really born with surgeries.  HRT for me...is literally free.  I live in the US, I go to a LGBT clinic that is covered by my insurance and is in network that does both blood tests.  Spiro and estradiol...are dirt cheap at this clinic. 

The NHS gender clinics and gender clinics in general are awful.  US LGBT clinics on the other hand are great with trans services.  They do not devalue our identities, they might as well be socialized, and they are by in large trans friendly.  Yeah its only for HRT and Therapy. But that is better than nothing or long waiting lists.  Which from what I noticed from trans people in the UK that is all they face and are forced to go private which is considerably more expensive then it is here in the US.  Very few in the UK or Canada get their surgeries paid for.  In the US there is actually companies that will cover much of the cost of SRS. 

If anything the best system I have seen so far that RESPECTS trans people is the LGBT clinic system.  If the UK was smart they would get rid of the gender clinics and their staff and adopt this system into the NHS.  Its much much better.

ffs isnt always needed either kiddo why does everyone stick that and BA in all measurements of transition costs?
R

They stick in transition cost, the same way, you'd stick the possible costs of options when you buy a car. To give yourself a range and also to know which one's more important to you.

By having all options, and price, you can make a better decision than by having a partial view fo the situation.

'technically, options are listed as such, most people list all these things as required for any transition... and too many see it as so...
R

Quote from: Amy T. on December 26, 2007, 12:08:14 AM
The NHS gender clinics and gender clinics in general are awful.  US LGBT clinics on the other hand are great with trans services.  They do not devalue our identities, they might as well be socialized, and they are by in large trans friendly.  Yeah its only for HRT and Therapy. But that is better than nothing or long waiting lists.  Which from what I noticed from trans people in the UK that is all they face and are forced to go private which is considerably more expensive then it is here in the US.  Very few in the UK or Canada get their surgeries paid for.  In the US there is actually companies that will cover much of the cost of SRS. 

If anything the best system I have seen so far that RESPECTS trans people is the LGBT clinic system.  If the UK was smart they would get rid of the gender clinics and their staff and adopt this system into the NHS.  Its much much better.

I totally agree, and I had to learn the hard way. I started with the NHS who spent two years of my time refusing hormones.........In the end I got tired of it and I saw a private consultant who put me on HRT straight away. The NHS U.K GIC psychiatrists then acused me of obtaining HRT from the black market and the internet which was particularly nasty, untrue and slanderous.....So I reported them to the Healthcare Commission.

That was the start of the unpleasantness that was to follow being part of the NHS GIC system. Two more referrals were blocked by the NHS GIC which really made up my mind I no longer wished to have anything to do with that system. I had previously been warned about the NHS (especially Charing Cross) by a couple of transsexual friends I knew in 1999 but of course I didn't listen to their expert advice.

Any treatment I have had so far has only been private.....but I have still managed to access two NHS surgeons from my own research away from any gender clinic system,  and I have now realised it's possible to bypass the NHS Gender Clinic system altogether.........but still access some NHS surgeons.

I now have an NHS approved funding for breast augmentation and have also seen a FFS surgeon and hope to get possible funding for this as well. I did this in the space of a year on my own, but while I was attending the Charing Cross GIC for 7 years I couldn't access any treatment at all.

I agree, the U.K NHS system in England is very bad. Scotland isn't perfect either but it is a little better.

Yikes!
Money talks.

Seems strange that you guys onlyhave one private therapist avalible.

Oh well it definitely seems faster to go the private route.

Regardless of the cost.

In the time spent waiting, you could easily have saved up enough money to see a private therapist.

That would be my route. If I lived there.

I would ignore th NHS entirely.

£200 to see Curtis. (each time)
hrt script on nhs... £12ish a pop
surgeon? god knows....
im in college atm, struggling to pay for tuition, books, rent, food etc...
i cant even BEGIN to save up to see a private therapist, or surgeon, and tbh, at the moment the 5 year wait for the nhs seems my only option... ><
R

Quote from: Rachael on January 12, 2008, 10:03:47 PM
£200 to see Curtis. (each time)
hrt script on nhs... £12ish a pop
surgeon? god knows....
im in college atm, struggling to pay for tuition, books, rent, food etc...
i cant even BEGIN to save up to see a private therapist, or surgeon, and tbh, at the moment the 5 year wait for the nhs seems my only option... ><
R

Also bear in mind that Richard Curtis is not a qualified psychiatrist and his referrals for GRS may not be accepted by the NHS or your PCT.

I ignored the GIC here too (in Montreal, Quebec), eventually went to see if it was as bad as I had heard, and maybe they could help finance stuff or something. I wasn't even admitted in the program.

I got my hormones through a generalist, and would I have waited to go the official SoCs route, get a letter for them, and a specialized endo and all that jazz, I'd be dead by now. I can get all that stuff while on HRT and full-time, seems I'm not dying a bit everyday like I felt I was.

It is worrying that psychiatrists at CIC clinics within the U.K may not actually be trained properly. In November 2001 during my second appointment at Charing Cross GIC, Dr Donald Montgomery wrote to my GP stating that I was 'under the delusion of being female'.  The attitude of the psychiatrists at Charing Cross CIC is that gender dysphoria doesn't exist and we are all under our own delusions. Their attitude is to beat the transsexulusm out of us in a hope it will cure us and they have no intention of providing treatment or support during these difficult times in our lives.

After careful investigation into Charing Cross GIC by the Healthcare Commission on my behalf, the Healthcare Commission found that my Charing Cross medical notes had been mixed up with another patients file. So some of my medical notes were in fact not mine but someone elses.

I have now found out after various independant medical tests that I am intersexed, so I'm certainly not dilusional and I have a medical condition. I think more should be done in the U.K to investigate these NHS gender clinics in order to avoid the increasing suicide rate caused by their unprofessional attitudes.

Berliegh,

Thats horrible, he acually wrote "under the delusion...", what a dick, mixed up with another patients file, is a bull->-bleeped-<- way of getting themselves out of trouble.  God thats so rude, maybe he is under the delusion of being human.

Quote from: mara on January 26, 2008, 01:00:20 PM
Berliegh,

Thats horrible, he acually wrote "under the delusion...", what a dick, mixed up with another patients file, is a bull->-bleeped-<- way of getting themselves out of trouble.  God thats so rude, maybe he is under the delusion of being human.

Montgomery from Charing Cross GIC wrote 'He is under the delusion that he is female' in a letter to my GP in 2002. Note they use 'He' instead of 'She'. Also patients files were mixed up and I got another letter from Barrett acusing me of 'taking illigitimate hormones from the internet' but in reality I was obtaining them through my GP on NHS prescription. When challenged about this Charing Cross admitted they had mixed up my files with another patient...

Wow.
Can you say: Lawsuit? 
That's what I would do.
Sue them to the ground.
I can't believe they have been getting away with this for so long.
How come nobody has sued them yet?
If they did that here, they would've been sued long ago.

Do they have some sort of immunity or somthing?

Sara

cant really sue over here without massive problems, and takes forever... we dont have the US blame culture quite yet
R >

Quote from: Rachael on January 29, 2008, 03:36:53 AM
cant really sue over here without massive problems, and takes forever... we dont have the US blame culture quite yet
R >

Rachael's right......over here in the U.K you have to have a few deaths before they start taking any notice.......and I know of a couple of suicide cases who were patients at Charing Cross.....but the NHS is the hardest nut to crack!

Quote from: Sarah on January 28, 2008, 01:04:14 PM
Wow.
Can you say: Lawsuit? 
That's what I would do.
Sue them to the ground.
I can't believe they have been getting away with this for so long.
How come nobody has sued them yet?
If they did that here, they would've been sued long ago.

Do they have some sort of immunity or somthing?

Sara

Something is in the works.........and I will be meeting with two politicians next month to talk about the subject...

Its not easy to sue the government over here either.  And, despite a few cases that garner too much attention, most lawsuits are about responsibility, not blame.  So, like the case of the Ford Pinto, where the designers knew it was going to have explosion problems when rear-ended, and the corporate management did a nice simple cost accounting and figured that the money spent on paying out lawsuits would be less than the profit they would make.