So frustrated!!!

[CJ]

I have been waiting to start t for ages now and when I first told my gp I was trans he was very supportive and said that he would be able to research into it and see what was needed to do to begin my first steps towards becoming myself. I've been having counselling separately and he hasn't started researching, I first told him over a year ago. I have tried contacting him and talking to him about it but nothing seems to be getting done. So anyway today I spoke to another doctor who is hopefully referring me to a gender identity clinic for hormone treatment.


Has anyone else had experiences like this? Do I need to got to this clinic to start t or can my gp prescribe me it now that I have had the counselling and also been diagnosed by a psychiatrist? Cheers

[Natkat]

where I live its VERY diffrent how easy it is to get homones.
if you know the right doctors you can get homones right away,
but if your more unlucky you will easely be refused or at least you would be waiting 1-2 years before you might get homones.

[Zerro]

Even though it's okay to give someone 16+ hormones in my area, the supposedly trans*-friendly clinic I've been going to is refusing to give me T until I'm a legal adult, even though I have the consent of both parents*. It's...insanely frustrating. I went to the clinic because it's the only place for miles that will give me a prescription for T(I've called almost every OB/GYN, endo, GP, etc within reach, and have gotten turned away repeatedly, even before revealing my age), and because it's famous for doing informed consent. My therapist is "supportive" of my transition, but won't write me a letter for T or surgery, so you can kind of get how maddening it is to be told to go away after shelling out valuable income for the blood tests they're not even letting me see.

There are many different places you can acquire T, just call around and have a therapist's letter or try and find a doctor that will do informed consent. As much as I hate to say it, some OB/GYN are qualified to prescribe you T. Good luck, dude.

*I'm pushing to get the prescription while I still have insurance. Once I'm a legal adult, I'll have nothing and won't be able to afford the prescription or appointments, so that's a good chunk of my agony. Even with a job that pays over minimum wage, I'm essentially poor. Fun stuff.

[CJ]

natkat yeah wish it was much more consistant, had a letter sent today to the nhs in my local area from my gp asking whether or not they will prescribe me testosterone so fingers crossed
i know what you mean zerro! must be difficult for you too, it seems to be like the magic number is 18 at the moment! dont really see how a few months (in my case) will change me so that i am ready enough to start hormones :/

[Zerro]

Then we're in the same position, dude. I had a doctor try to tell me that T would make my bones SHRINK if I wasn't 18, yet she couldn't provide me with evidence to back that claim up. Crazy world, isn't it? I guess people want to avoid legal issues when it comes to parents and their children, but still...I can't believe that I was turned away even with the consent of BOTH parents.

Quite frankly, if you're ready, you're ready. I can understand keeping actual T away from people younger than 16 to an extent, but if the guidelines say it's kosher, I don't see why clinics would just outright refuse folks who have everything together.

But still, even people who are 18 and up have issues accessing testosterone depending on their situation. It's just a big mess, really.

[CJ]

It just shows that doctors don't come across this very often, it's like they try to fend us off on someone else and don't want to deal with it themselves! Yeah I understand under 16 of something but it's just ridiculous that our happiness is in their hands and they don't know how to deal with it :/

[Natkat]

natkat yeah wish it was much more consistant, had a letter sent today to the nhs in my local area from my gp asking whether or not they will prescribe me testosterone so fingers crossed
i know what you mean zerro! must be difficult for you too, it seems to be like the magic number is 18 at the moment! dont really see how a few months (in my case) will change me so that i am ready enough to start hormones :/

Zerro: its pretty much the same where im from. theres no rules saying its illegal to give people less than 18 homones,
but neither is there rules saying its illegal. because of that many doctors are afraid of giving homones to young people,
I know 2 people less than 18 who got homones, but its hard and as younger you are as harder.
as I said earlyer it also depend about knowing the right people and places.

I wish I could had been less than 18 when I started homones, but I was told by doctors and my parrents that it was illigal and would make me ill and misarable.. -__- turns out neither of it was true.

[Fairy In Boots]

where I live its VERY diffrent how easy it is to get homones.
if you know the right doctors you can get homones right away,
but if your more unlucky you will easely be refused or at least you would be waiting 1-2 years before you might get homones.

This.

It really depends on where you live and who your doctor is, and where they work out of.

I started transitioning with U of Michigan Medical (Family Practise at the Frank Lloyd Wright building), and U of M gives two basic options:  Get a therapist with their "gender program" (which is completely useless, as it is, as how it was explained to me is that their "gender program" basically acts as a middle-man between the doctors and one's insurance --so good luck transitioning on Medicare! it's not going to happen with U of Michigan's "gender program"), *or* make sure your general physician (GP) is willing to work with your non-program therapist and non-program surgeons, and also make sure the non-program surgeon will take your insurance.  Depending on how ready your therapist and GP think you are, you can have 'mones in as few as six months, or maybe as long as two years.

There are all sorts of stories about how easy or difficult it is to get HRT from all over North Ameri ca.

[CJ]

Cheers for your help guys, guess I'm just gonna have to wait and see where I will be in the next few weeks, very frustrating isn't it! Practically ripping my hair out as I have been told by numerous professionals that I should have started T by now :/ ah well I can't wait to get my first shot