What are the direct financial costs of transitioning?   Seems like many thousands of US dollars, depending on what you do.

Some items to consider:

Therapy
Medical doctors
Lab tests
Mtf HRT medicine itself
Hair removal

New sensible size and quality of wardrobe and appearance:
Clothes
Shoes
Halr and beauty
Jewelry
Accessories

Legal

Surgeries

And so on...


On top of that, maybe a financial loss of income because of lost work or lost clients; the loss of what others may have financially contributed for shared living expenses when they lived with you but who have now moved out, so you are paying it all now; and costs of potential moving/relocating.

Chrissy

Therapy
Medical doctors $ 400
Lab tests $ $0
Mtf HRT medicine itself  $4500
Hair removal  $1200

Well out of the list you gave I have spent around

New sensible size and quality of wardrobe and appearance:
Clothes  $3000  plus $1100 for work uniforms
Shoes   $500
Halr and beauty $1500
Jewelry  $ 200
Accessories $300

Legal   $ 500

Surgeries $0

Adding
* Traveling to the Doctors Gas $1000

For me:

Therapy $900
Medical doctors $0
Lab tests $400
Mtf HRT medicine itself $3500 (two years)
Hair removal $2700

New sensible size and quality of wardrobe and appearance:
Clothes $500 (lots of second hand clothes)
Shoes $140
Hair and beauty $450
Jewelry $250
Accessories $120

Legal $180

Surgeries $3500 (next month!) + $500 expenses

Gas money ~$1000

Total : $14,140 (so far!)


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I'm also counting in my expenses the amount extra I'm paying to be on a PPO plan vs an HMO plan to give me more choice of providers. It's going to be about $5k per year for two years. But I think it will be worth it for peace of mind.

So far in 2018...

Therapy $1500
HRT $500
Surgeries $30,000
Clothing - $10,000
Shoes - $1500
Makeup - $500
Traveling to Doctors - $3000
Hair Removal - $4000

Total ball park - $51,000



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Never went to a therapist since i didnt need to pay someone to tell me something I already knew.

with that said about 10,000 for voice surgery, 20,000 for facial surgery, 16000 for ba and GRS........... '

brought my own electrolysys machine out of Canada and did it myself over countless hours.............


Nothing in life worth a crap is easy!

Quote from: Katie on December 14, 2018, 05:46:45 AM
brought my own electrolysis machine out of Canada and did it myself over countless hours.............

          OUCH! I watched somebody here do this *not easy* takes practice, steady hand and a love of *pain* what if one bought a decent machine and the rest of us learned to work on each other?

Not much use for "therapists", "doctors" & "surgeries" been going on 40yrs now and I AM STILL HERE! Feel like "trans" is fast becoming the latest, greatest medical insurance industry SCAM not all of us can afford the outrageous monthly payments am thankful for good health do whatever I can without it!

$12,500 on surgery, 7 months of E patches and spironolactone at around $100/month, now I'm on E only, at $15/month. I only had two therapy appointments, $310 total. Let's not talk about clothing expenditures!

I'll catch flack for this, but I've never appreciated the comment "I didn't need a therapist telling me who I am."
That statement makes it sound like if you need someone to tell you you have gender dysphoria, them you're not trans.

In my province, therapy was required to get letters for my GCS which was fully covered.
Therapy helped me how I would word my coming out to my ex-wife, friends and family.
Therapy helped me to deal with how I handled relationships.
Therapy helped me open doors in my mind that had been previously shut. Issues like my childhood, relationship with my parents etc. soon became clearer.

Therapy is NOT just to tell you if you're trans, or trans enough...it's to help you deal with emotions, pain, understanding.
Therapy helped set in motion what steps I needed to begin transition.
Therapy was required to go on HrT.

K, enough of my rant.
All my costs below are in Cdn$
Six sessions therapy at $100 per session.
My trachea shave: $4,200
Electrolysis: from start to finish - $7,000
$0 spent on Voice training or surgery
My GCS was free as surgeries are covered in most parts of Canada. It would have cost $20,000 if from out of country.
Mammograms and MRIs are free where I live. I've had half a dozen mammograms thus far.
Meds: very little. Had an excellent health plan and used Costco pharmacy. I'm not on meds anymore, but I recall my last Estradiol was like $3 a month.
Clothing: I'd say less than $1000 over the first five years. I was never into fashion or style. Last five years, even less. I spend more money on hunting clothing than I do on my personal wardrobe.

What did it cost me....
2017 Audi SQ5 (it was me trying not to be me) still paying on it.

$695 a month for self paid health insurance
36 months worth

$3,000 for travel, consult, gcs and stage two and BA (cost was for travel for two)
Hair removal face and down below $4,000 however, insurance paid back $3,600
Clothing way too much
Lost work as clients did not want one of them... more than I care to list.
Estrogen and Progestrone $240 for two years and counting
$2400 copay for GCS $0 for Stage two and BA
$400 in Co pays for voice training at Kaiser
Upcoming $10,000 for VFS with Dr. Thomas
What are the end results? I am content and that is priceless!

I had better be saving more money, that is for sure!

Chrissy

Mostly hard to say. Some of my costs are covered by insurance... and a few things changed since I did get a different insurance 18 months ago

Therapy: $120 per session. Initially covered by my old insurance, now not anymore. I do about one session a month these days.

HRT: Initially: $30 copay a month, no copay with new insurance

Doctor Appointments / Labs: $15 copay

Hair removal: So far about $3k ($1500 for bottom, flat fee and 2 x 750 for 15 facial sessions each.) need another 15 sessions to finish my face, so total will be $3,750

GRS: Not entirely sure yet since I am still working out details with my insurance. I do assume it will be about $5,000 - $6,000 out of pocket in the end.

Loss of work: I will be losing 25% pay in the month post surgery for recovery. That is due to the short term disability limitations. Have not lost any customers but my work cannot assign me to certain projects (Middle East projects or certain religious groups). But that has no impact.

New wardrobe: Ugh - I did not keep track of it. I was due for a new wardrobe anyways but of course, female clothing is more expensive and you actually need more variations. I also need business outfits. I can make an educated guess but I don't want to These days I try to limit myself to about $250 per months on new wardrobe while I am still building up my portfolio. I am at a point where I can go a few months without buying anything new.

I haven't been keeping track, so these are guesstimates only.  Items with '*' are costs after partial rebate from insurance.

Therapy: $500*
Hair removal: $5800*
HRT: $1200*
Gas to Doctor and support group: $1500
Doctor: $0
Lab: $0
GRS: $0
Trachea shave: <not sure yet>
Wardrobe: $5000
Voice training: $400

Over $45K (USD)

I think I will skip a vacation to save some more money!

Wow.  Thanks for sharing.


Chrissy

60,000 miles / 96,000 km.

2014-17, more than 100 visits to an electrologist in Seattle (10 miles each way) and 20 laser visits (5 miles each way). 
SEA>PHX          10/2017  GCS evaluation, Scottsdale Arizona
SEA>BOS          10/2017  FFS evaluation, Boston Massachusetts
SEA>LHR>->-bleeped-<-  11/2017  FFS evaluation, Marbella Spain
SEA>PHX           01/2018  GCS, Scottsdale Arizona
SEA>ICN           03/2018  VFS, Seoul Korea
SEA>PHX           04/2018  GCS followup, Scottsdale Arizona
SEA>PHX           05/2018  GCS followup, Scottsdale Arizona
SEA>LHR>->-bleeped-<-   05/2018  FFS, Marbella Spain
SEA>PHX           07/2018  GCS-2 & BA, Scottsdale Arizona

That isn't counting last week's trip to Marbella since that wasn't medically necessary - but had a quick checkup while there.

And I should probably add local trips for 9 blood tests in 18 months, and several dozen appointments with medical practitioners (endocrinologist, physician, therapist, psychologist, speech therapist).

I posted a Haiku last summer that included:

     who is it that said
     the best things in life are free
     did not see my bills

The rest of the Haiku is here.

How much you spend really depends on how much surgery you need and where you live.

For those of us who transition as a teen or early 20's, therapy, hormones and GCS should be sufficient. For the older girls, add to this FFS, hair removal from the face and scalp transplants.

These costs can be minimized by either living in a country that supports transition services through national health insurance or in the US, by going to work for an employer who offers health insurance that will cover transition.

For an older transitioner as myself, my costs are nearing $70,000 and after all is said and done, it will be close to $100,000. This sounds like a lot and it is, but it seems to be equally divided between GCS, FFS, hair removal and transplants and finally complicated legal fees.

It is not inexpensive to transition, that's for sure.

Chrissy

It took me a while to add up everything, and some of these are estimates. I am only showing out-of-pocket expenses, and I am not including any travel expenses. I will have more surgical expenses in April as well...

$14.600   Laser hair removal (face, neck, back. stomach, legs)
  7,000   Electrolysis (face, neck, chest, south pole... so far...)
    300   Medical check-ups
    540   Therapy
    520   HRT
    160   Lab work
    200   Legal
   5000   Clothes
    600   Shoes
    800   Hair and beauty
   1000   Jewelry (includes a new wedding ring)
    200   Accessories
   3400   Trachea Shave
   2500   GCS deposit

$36,820   Total

Quote from: Kiera on December 14, 2018, 06:03:47 AM
          OUCH! I watched somebody here do this *not easy* takes practice, steady hand and a love of *pain* what if one bought a decent machine and the rest of us learned to work on each other?

Not much use for "therapists", "doctors" & "surgeries" been going on 40yrs now and I AM STILL HERE! Feel like "trans" is fast becoming the latest, greatest medical insurance industry SCAM not all of us can afford the outrageous monthly payments am thankful for good health do whatever I can without it!

There's a school for that costs about 10k for training and license.