Quote from: Josh on October 29, 2009, 03:55:17 PMneeding a therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist letter isnt really held onto as law much any more. people are starting to see us as sane and not as crazies who need a professional to verify our every trip to the super market.
At the risk of being accused of raining on the parade, seriously, I think that there is, in fact,
some valid reasons for a psychological evaluation. I've encountered at least two people on-line who are basically "FTMTF" -- and one of them even went so far as 18+months on HRT and then scheduling, then very soon after cancelling her chest surgery and very openly regretting HRT because many of the changes testosterone makes are
permanent. her story was that she realised, "almost too late in some ways, but definitely too late in others" (her words) that she wanted to transition for the wrong reasons.
One of the TS women at my local TS/TG group has even agreed with my experiences and has said on several occasions that she's run into far more FTMTF persons than MTFTMs, and she has also noted that the "FTMTF" women go further in their physical transitions than "MTFTM" men, and therefore have more to ultimately regret, so there's obviously an underlying issue here that this new-found easier-access to FTM HRT and chest surgery is not adequately addressing. And if you look up the TS standards of care for physical transitions in the U$, it really is
far easier for FTM persons to score HRT and top-op (both of which result in many irreversible changes) than it is for MTF persons to score HRT and possible breast augmentation (the changes resulting in both of those endeavours are, in contrast, largely reversible).
On one hand, the U$ didn't even completely recognise FTM as a valid form of transsexualism until 1977 (and there are LOTS of reasons for that), so it's almost novel that said orgs are finally not only recognising us, but cutting self-identified FTM TS persons so much slack -- but why? And to what end? There are far deeper societal issues at work here than just a handful of doctors "deciding we're not crazies" and "taking us seriously". As grateful as I am that going on HRT was a relatively headache-free experience for me, I've known far more TS women who've been trying for YEARS to "get taken seriously enough" to even have their therapists consider, and I've also encountered just enough "ex-FTMs" who now seem to get off on bad-mouthing the FTM community and the doctors who enable our physical transition every chance they get, that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I also like to think that my doctor, being a woman herself and being my primary care physician off-and-on since I was fifteen (that's thirteen years) didn't sign me up for my first injection a week before my therapist faxed in the letter due to some underlying internalised misogyny of hers fostering the possible notion that I may be "better off", even if I'm jumping the gun -- I hope she made her decision because she knows that this is what's best for me, due to a long and good doctor-patient relationship between her and myself.
