Quote from: Emily R on May 10, 2016, 04:51:52 PM
Hi Mindy,

I have been seeing her for a year now, and she was one of the two choices recommended by my Gender Therapist when she gave me the HRT letter.

She is a very professional and compassionate person and has many years of experience treating Trans woman.  I have met the first trans woman that she treated about 20 years ago, and she said that they both learned together as the Dr had to research how to treat her.

I am an older trans woman and therefore she has been very cautious with the dosage and increasing it. I originally  asked for a very low dosage when I first started as my plan was more to relieve the dysphoria and then I decided to go ahead and start transitioning faster as at my age the hormones causes slower changes. She constantly is running blood work test to make sure that not only the hormones levels are changing, but also to make sure that the spiro does not causes any problems.

I don't know what percentage of her patients are trans, I assume not a large percentage but I like her and will recommend her without any reservations.

Feel free to PM if you like more details.

Emily R

Yeah... ummm... going to have to disagree with you on Dr. Lewy-Alterbaum. Inexperienced and unprofessional, with little to no understanding of trans standards of care would be my opinion. She starts all patients off on far too low a dosage as she could care less about results. She blood tests often to build up a nice bill, either with you or your insurance company paying for it. You can schedule your own blood tests thru a 3rd party provider online for about 66% less than she will bill you and it will be tested at the same lab. She will follow the same protocol whether your 18 or 78. Good health, or not. I definitely recommend finding someone else.

Unfortunately there are few other choices.

Jenn,

You have the right to your opinion, but I disagree with you!

That she is conservative and cautious I will agree with you, but in my case I am not a spring chicken anymore at 62 and I specifically approached her on the first visit told her that I wanted to start very slow, which she was happy about as she told me that it was the opposite of what most patients wanted.

On the lab test, she told me the type of test i needed to have performed and I have been using the online 3rd party provider" that you refer to  with very low cost compared to everything else. If you look at the recommended testing frequency by recognized endocrynologist associations, I believe is monthly for the first 3 months or so and then every 3 months for like a year and if everything is normal and a good hormone level is achieved then the testing is every 6 months. I have been pretty much on that schedule except my potassium has been high so she has been testing just for it more often.

Just because you don't agree with her protocol is not a reason to discredit her. She is professional and once you begin to know her better she becomes more open and caring.

Maybe she is not your type of doctor, but don't say that she is inexperienced and unprofessional please!