Fading Echoes Of Silence
Kandi-kid-Karinka
well top reconstruction is great but ive heard horror stories about the lower hahaha it is an expensive operation that is often more trouble than it is worth. I know everyone here is more than willing to help, i think the first step would be to find a therapist because in most caxes they have to ok your operations though in my bfs case he didnt bahahaha sneekt.
Well... that's not exactly comforting... and now I'm actually a bit more hesitant. I mean yes, I want this, but if there is the chance I'm going to end up some horrific mess when I go for the final touches then doesn't that make the whole journey lose its point? If I can't be all or nothing {which believe me, my mind won't accept a part way transitioning due to my OCD} then I can't really accept the change. But if there are multiple reports of them ******** up the last operation I plan to get... I don't know. Now I'm even more between a rock and a hard place...
Try not to get too hung up on that. People have different experiences with the phalloplasty surgery, and plenty of folks are perfectly happy with their results. Yes, it's expensive, usually running around $60 grand, but surgery is expensive, and this kind is classified as plastic surgery, which is always pricey. When you do get to that point in your process, you'll have extensive meetings with surgeons and you'll be able to figure out the best way
for you. Try browsing through
TransBucket. It's got lots and lots of post-op pics, for both top and bottom surgery. It will give you a good idea of what it (generally) ends up looking like.
Fading Echoes Of Silence
That unfortunately is probably going to be the largest step for me. Right off the get go I trust virtually no one with the title of therapist or psychiatrist due to some other issues I have going on. I live in Delaware, one of the smallest states in the country, and nowhere near a major city.
Is there even a way to verify such information before you have to see the therapist? How do you even get information like that? Plus there is the whole issue of them needing to accept my insurance... which, call it being pessmistic, but I have a strong feeling very few to no therapists that would meet my needs would actually be out there. Besides that they'd need to be a therapist for not only the gender identity issue, but for my current medical issues... because I'm not about to be seeing multiple people... I don't have that type of money being a part time worker.
I'm not so much worried about how long I'll need to see the therapist, as long as they don't have me waiting longer than a year. There is no point of beating around the bush. I'm not familiar with what a endocrinologist is or what they do. How important are they to this process? Is it possible to bypass their step? Also the same issue would arise that they would need to take my insurance...
This is the part that involves legwork. If you have insurance, then you need to call your insurance company and get a list of every practicing therapist that accepts your plan. Call them one by one and ask them if they specialize or have experience in people who are experiencing Gender Identity Disorder, or Gender Dysphoria.
An easier way to do it might be to Google around your area and find out if there are any LGBT community centers, or Trans* organizations, or something like that. They might have a reference list already available. But if not, you'll be making a lot of cold calls.
But it's not that bad! That's how I found my therapist, my doctor,
and my surgeon. You just keep the question short, "Excuse me, do you have experience working with patients experiencing Gender Identity Disorder, or Gender Dysphoria?" (Remember, it's
dysphoria, not
dysmorphia, those are two different things.) If they say no, or if they ask you what that means, you just cross them off the list and move on to the next. I think it took me about twenty or twenty-five minutes of cold calling before I found everyone.
Take it one step at a time. Don't worry about a doctor right now. Worry about finding a therapist. Once you're in the therapist's office, they will likely have their own list of doctors in the area who are willing to prescribe hormones to trans* patients, so it would save you some legwork. But worry about the therapist first.
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