After a long delay in hearing back from his office, I finally have a surgery date with Dr. Dugi for minimal depth vaginoplasty. When I saw him for a consult back in October he was booking about 4 months out, into February, so I figured I would be able to get in pretty easily. However, since I transitioned over a decade ago there was a bit of a delay as I did not have the letters yet and had to spend a couple of months having them redone (there had been no need to see a therapist since my orchiectomy back in '04.) Unfortunately during that time his waiting list has quadrupled and now they cannot get me until October 8, 2018. Needless to say I am upset and disappointed that I went from looking forward to having my surgery done in time for my wedding, to having to wait almost an additional year and a half. There is a "sort of" waiting list, and I asked to be put on it, but they said they don't get many cancellations as he does take Medicare/Medicaid so people are pretty much set. Be that as it may I am hoping they can get me in sooner. His assistant on the telephone told me they are not happy with the long delay either and are trying to transfer some of his "regular" urology patients to a new doctor AND to get him more operating room time to try and whittle down the waiting list. I will post updates if I find anything else out. At least I tell myself it gives him more time to get experience, if nothing else.

I find it odd that you need letters at this point. WPATH requires letters for an orchi, which you've had, so whats the point of even more letters.

I hope you can get your surgery moved up for a year and a half is a long wait time.  I know several surgeons now have brought in assistants to cut down the wait time.  There is more of a demand to surgery all the time.

Quote from: AnonyMs on May 08, 2017, 09:36:26 AM
I find it odd that you need letters at this point. WPATH requires letters for an orchi, which you've had, so whats the point of even more letters.

EDIT: Just to be clear, my orchiectomy was back in 2004, so the people who wrote the original letters are now in another state, have not seen me since then, and may well be retired.

Insurance. My insurance company requires two letters following WPATH standards for them to approve the cost of surgery. I don't think I needed them, my therapists didn't think I needed them, and I don't think even Dr. Dugi thought I needed them.....but obviously going through the hassle beats having to pay out of pocket. I saw my two therapists for a total of like 7 sessions combined to get them. I am glad insurance will pay for a lot of this stuff now, but it's been odd dealing with the whole "transgender medicine" angle after so long away. For example, my HRT has been paid for my by insurance for well over a decade since my doctors have been treating me like any other woman who's missing her ovaries. Never needed letters or justification for that. When I switched to Planned Parenthood, however, they put my HRT down as "transgender hormone therapy" and suggested my insurance might request letters from some therapist or something ridiculous. I'll be really glad once surgery is over and done with so I can move away from the whole "transgender" angle medically. I took care of the big stuff a long time ago, and it's weird and uncomfortable that I'm now being forced to jump through hoops AGAIN well over a decade after what was intended to be my last procedure.

This news frustrates me greatly. I go through Kaiser and was lead to believe I needed my letters for the referral I've been working on getting them I have one signed off on and I'm seeing another therapist this week for the second I just emailed the doctor to find out if I can get a referral now. With this wait-list being so long it means I have to stay on the super expensive insurance plan a year longer than I had hoped and I can't afford to get my family on it and lower the coverage like I had hoped to next year. I don't wanna wait till 2019!!

Dr Rachel Bluebond-Langner at NYU has more experience, great reviews and shorter lead times. . . . she's also the nicest doctor/surgeon I ever met in my life and I'm 65 . . .

Heard back from gender pathways they will not refer me to a surgeon without both letters in hand. Gatekeeping bullcrap wpath standards are silly no cis man would want this surgery certainly not bad enough to lie their way past not one therapist but two!

Marscreature,

Welcome to the site. Sorry to hear you are frustrated by the WPATH standards. Perhaps you can explain your financial issues to this second doctor for their letter?

I also want to share some links with you. They are mostly welcome information and the rules that govern the site. If you have not had a chance to look through them, please take a moment:

Site Terms of Service & Rules to Live By	Standard Terms & Definitions	Post Ranks (including when you can upload an avatar)
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Once again, welcome to Susan's. Look around, ask questions and join in.

With warmth,

Joanna

Quote from: Marscreature on May 18, 2017, 02:27:52 PM
This news frustrates me greatly. I go through Kaiser and was lead to believe I needed my letters for the referral I've been working on getting them I have one signed off on and I'm seeing another therapist this week for the second I just emailed the doctor to find out if I can get a referral now. With this wait-list being so long it means I have to stay on the super expensive insurance plan a year longer than I had hoped and I can't afford to get my family on it and lower the coverage like I had hoped to next year. I don't wanna wait till 2019!!

Yeah, I'm not happy about the long wait, though I guess if one wanted to look on the bright side it will give him time to get more experience. My suggestion to you is to start genital electrolysis NOW by the way; he requires it before surgery, and you will need a year of clearances before you can consider yourself "done." His office told me that they are working on getting him more OR time and shortening the waiting list, so date may become available sooner. You don't want to let not having your electrolysis done be the thing that would keep you from getting an earlier date. His office can send you a diagram of what needs to be cleared, if you haven't already seen it.

I believe that Dr Dugi is a very good choice. Does he still use skin flap for the vaginal lining?

Quote from: reborn on May 21, 2017, 01:16:03 PM
I believe that Dr Dugi is a very good choice. Does he still use skin flap for the vaginal lining?

He used a modified penile inversion along with a scrotal skin graft. There is a good presentation on YouTube where he discusses his surgical technique. I can literally walk to OHSU from my home, so I am pretty set on staying with him because I would be able to recover at home with my friends around me.

I finally got word from my doctor that she sent my referral to OHSU I had no idea he required genital electrolosis I had planned to start it soon anyways I have 3 hours of electrolosis scheduled tomorrow I guess it's time for things to get really uncomfortable. Thanks for the heads up I'm soooo excited