we also finally got around to getting our legal name/sex change registered with our clinic.

they did mess it up the first time and only changed our first name, but luckily they photoscanned the needed document. from there we sorted it out over the telephone.

we’re apparently now cis though, the voice training must have paid off lol

but to the topic at hand, some time ago we did get a letter of support for both vaginoplasty and orchiectomy with the intention of pursuing the latter first due to antiandrogen complications at the time (spiro sux!). but finasteride is working surprisingly well, so we’ll probably try and get a second support letter (per the WPATH and hospital we’d be going to) and solely pursue vaginoplasty. we’ll make a couple more calls to that aforementioned hospital soon and hope they go well.

stay safe, use suncream, and drink plenty of water x

  • Jul@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    8·
    4 days ago

    Yeah, only the US federal government and one of Catholic Owned health care corporations that own most of our doctors’ offices these days still have my gender wrong. And I only had to go back to that health group because the only surgeon for facial feminization in the area who takes insurance and who’s wait list is only about 2 years was at that group. The only not her options were 7 years and up waits. Even my health insurance fixed their records once I got my birth certificate changed, which did require bottom surgery in the state I was born in but doesn’t in the much more progressive state I live in now. I hopefully just have to wait out the current extreme anti-trans administration to hopefully get a correct passport so I maybe can travel again one day. Maybe in 5 years or so, after the administration changes and then things can recover enough for that.

    Anyway, I hope you’re able to get your surgery. I’m almost at 1 year since mine and nerves are starting to work a little better. But I ended up with a lot of necrosis and lost most of my clitoral tissue which sucks. I have some revision surgery in a couple of months to fix some issues with the labia and remove some extra scar tissue, but hopefully that doesn’t cause too much additional nerve damage and I’ll be fully healed sometime before the end of next year.

    But even with the complications, and even if my girlfriend (who I just started seeing a few months ago so never knew me with the other genitals) can never give me an orgasm, I still have no regrets. That’s how life changing it has been for me. Though I had a kind of “phantom genital” issue which not all trans-women have, so it was my highest priority. Not to mention I’m still afraid insurance companies are going to start removing gender affirming care as covered services like the federal government employee health plan, Veteran’s Administration health plan, and Medicare (for elderly) all removed it. So, I’m in a bit of a rush to get something that big done since it might take a decade or more to fix something like that and I’m getting too old to heal from that stuff in a decade. Lol

    Anyway, I only mention all the negative stuff to emphasize how much, at least for me, it has made a huge difference in my life along with the estrogen. I’m sure you won’t face all those complications. I just have bad luck, lol. I hope the facial feminization can happen next year (I’ve been waiting a while) and it’s still covered by insurance by then. I also had vocal therapy, but it didn’t help and I had surgery, but wildfire smoke made me cough a lot and I broke stitches, so still likely need to get that redone at some point. But after all that I know I’ll be a much happier person overall, so it’s worth all of the gate keeping stuff blamed on WPATH (which were supposed to just be recommendations, not a gatekeeping rule book to stop trans people from having healthcare), the pain, the complications, and the loans to pay for all that insurance doesn’t cover. So, so worth it.

    • kivihiili@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      oof, that sounds unwieldy as fuck. we are very lucky that medical care in our area is fairly lenient with trans healthcare and that we shouldn’t have to pay a dime, but we do not take that for granted. and even then, while the medical folk here are very well trained/versed with regards to the queer community and are extremely kind, a lot of said leniency comes from a lack of medical providers, and those that are here being extremely rushed. having ended up in the ER a couple times has demonstrated that very well!

      again, we are super fortunate that trans healthcare here (in this city at least) is exceptional and everything gender affirming care related is extremely quick—that letter of support took like 15 minutes to get, and HRT was a 30 minute appointment. taking into consideration the federal government though, we have no idea how long this will last, or how portland will fair (where the hospital is), so like you mentioned it’s gonna be best to get this done sooner rather than later. and from what we’ve heard this hospital’s surgeons do gender-affirming surgeries really well but they also have some decent waitlists.

      but if you can do it with the baggage where you live, we can probably pull it off here too. sincerely, thank you for the word and for the encouragement. we’ll give it our best :)