well:
I came to terms to that point that I knew what I had to do shortly before going to university and this is how it went for me:
I arrived at uni and went straight to my GP came out to him and he reffered me to the GIC however he said that waiting lists were about two years, my heart sunk, I was already on HRT via not so official means so I trucked on with transition anyway, a month later I went FT and then I got my refferal letter which mentioned that occasionally they have cancelations and if i was available short notice I should give them my mobile number which I did allong with a rather large email about myself and my situation I had a reply queerying a few things and I sent a couple more rather too large emails so they knew my situation exactly, my HRT and the fact that i'd already started transition without them, I suspect that this made them shove me to the frount of the cancelation que as I know people who have been available for cancelations for about a year and got nothing.
I chaged my name legally in november after trawling around edinburgh whenever I could trying to find a solicitor that had a bearer of oaths, finally I found one and was treated like crap by the receptionist I explained my situation and then she proceaded to put emphasis on male adresses, however the woman who beared my oath was lovely and saw how the receptionist was so didn't change me a penny.
My cancelation appointment came through and I was to see them in december, I'd been FT for about 6 weeks at that point (I think, went FT oct 26th but I can't remember when the appointment was) and I'd got the point where I was fairly confident in my passing, the clinic is at the royal infirmary in edinburgh and I had the appointment with dr lyndsey myskow, we talked for about 20 mins or so about my past mostly she just wanted to clarify a few points I haddn't mentioned before like when/why did I grow my hair out (12, no particular reason I just hated it short) and how my family was about things, then she moved onto HRT asked me to go off it for a while for baselines and that she'd be happy to prescribe once that was done, she also gave me a refferal for voice therapy and that was it, I thanked her and I went off back to london for christmas.
Christmas I found hell and there was no way I could deal with going off HRT and meeting my family as female at the same time so I postponed it. I got through it all in one piece and got back to university and did it, urrg, total hell, I shant go into detail but it was far far worse than i'd ever expect and there's no way in hell i'd do that again unless it was prior to surgery, I got discharged from university work as I was a complete mess and did it from halls as best I could, it wrecked the whole term but I'm pretty sure I didn't fail completely.
I got it done though and went back on my old HRT supply before I had my next appointment which was a couple of weeks ago I had grown a little facial hair which I definately did not have before hand but since it's gone away again so it's not the end of the world, we talked a little about how my life was going and then discussed HRT stuff before filling in a prescription request form for me, then she asked how voice therapy was going and I told her how I was discharged from the clinic as my voice was ok she agreed and then asked if there was anything she could do to make my life more fuffilling as a woman which i wasn't expecting, I replied, unless you mean surgically no not really and that was it, 20 min appointment (for which i'd traveled 9 hours on the coach for and was about to travel 9 hours back to london) I was a bit suprised and said I was kind of expecting more therapy or something and she just replied that it was all that was needed.
So here I am, transitioned on HRT on the NHS on track to be reffered for surgey my appointment after next and my whole life is pretty set. I was very lucky to get all that ok but at the same time I did fight for it, I did transition without the NHS's help and I did write letters to the clinic so they'd give me an appointment earlier, if you fight for it you can do it but if you don't put the effort in the NHS will let you sit on a waiting list and then refuse to give you HRT until you go FT when they see you.
