mtf 19 y/o, ive decided to start researching how i can access hrt privately. im not on an nhs wait list yet and dont want to wait several years

the only clinic ive found close to me so far is genderplus, they seem relatively affordable but there is a negative review on this sub of them being gatekeepy: https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/18njtcf/please_be_careful_of_genderplus_my_experience/
id like to hear other's experiences with them positive or negative (and exactly what to expect from an initial assessment if anyone is willing to share)

if anyone has recommendations for alternative clinics in the west midlands id also love to hear about those too!!

https://www.edennew.life/

Link that I used

My assessment is on Monday and I’m terrified that I won’t move forward and start medically transitioning with a diagnosis. I don’t know what to expect and I hate the unknown! Any advice or experiences people wouldn’t mind sharing please?! 😅

After seeing my GP the other day about getting on a shared care arrangement (I have a diagnosis and endo report elsewhere), I was pretty flatly told that they don't offer that in Dorset and I would be lucky to get one from another GP practice. This comes after a previous GP appointment earlier this year where they let slip there is someone else at my GP practice on one.

I got the typical response that: "We don't know what we're doing with this". Even if all I want them to do is the odd blood test and an injection, and if the nurse there isn't capable of that then I have to question what use they are, but I digress...

Now to me this says one of two things, either way I'm pissed off, but it can only be one of the following:

• My GP is lying to me and they offer shared care in Dorset, they just don't want to at that practice.
• The rules changed and they've cut people off since. Another door slammed in my face.

Is there anyone here in Dorset who is on a shared care arrangement? If what my GP said is true and they don't offer it at all, I guess I need to try and change GP to one in another county (probably Hampshire). Any advice on doing that?

Does anybody know any top surgery places that do private. i’m no where near my goal but working my ass off to get there. i’m private on HRT and want to go private for top surgery. i’ve seen loads of people go to turkey as it’s cheaper, idk? anybody have any ideas or whatever. thankyou!!!

Hello, I'm (MTF) half Scottish but was born in Brazil. I went to school here in Scotland but my parents never bothered to apply for my citizenship. I have had a BRP for over 15 years and recently applied and recieved a new one in my new name and gender providing evidence. My passport in my national country was not changed as it was expired and I plan to renounce my citizenship in Brazil. I am wondering if my changed BRP will be a problem as I do not have a GRC yet or a passport in my new name and gender. Will applying for British citizenship and a passport be a problem? I have my original certificate in Brazil but it has my born gender.

Okay I know this seems like an odd question for this thread but it’s because I need to access my patient information, and the website is unavailable in the UK. It’s FOLX health, and they use the Athena Patient Portal which isn’t available in the UK unless you have a VPN. Does anyone here have any recommendations for a good safe one that could work?

I just recently moved from the US and still am using my US testosterone prescription and the FOLX company since it’s easier right now. Any advice is appreciated <3

Does anyone know a place in brighton and Hove where you can get monitoring blood tests for testosterone done for free, my GP refuses to do mine and I've paid for them privately before but it costs £250 and coming up to Christmas its a lot of money

sorry for the second post in one day but i'm really struggling haha, i'm from northern ireland and want to go private as the waiting list ive been put on to start hormones (i'm ftm) is seven years long for just an initial appointment. i'm seventeen years old and my family doesn't really have money, i tried bringing up gendergp to my mother today but was immediately shot down because she thinks it's too expensive for me to spend money on myself and she doesn't know if "it's a legitimate site". i looked at reviews online and they really were not good either, i'm so lost and i don't know what to do. i just want to be a boy

Minor 17, wanting to do MTF hrt. I would prefer to diy to be able to control dosages, since I've heard that any gender healthcare services give you low doses. However I think I'd be able to go through genderplus, and possibly get hrt that way. Would they actually prescribe hrt before I turn 18 or will I be waiting still and also how are the dosages? Are they within proper ranges.

Or should I just DIY?

So I’m applying for university soon (in scotland) and if I could just put my new name on my application if I change it through a statutory declaration or if would have to send them some other evidence like a changed id? I don’t know if I have enough time to get everything sorted but I really don’t want to apply with my deadname.

My cousin is getting married in Bulgaria next June and I'm a little worried about my safety, mainly due to getting through the airport.

I'm MTF and haven't been able to change my gender marker on my passport yet, although it's something I might be able to get done in time. I can pass, so the main worry is border security seeing my passport and demanding to 'check' if my gender marker is true.

I'm less worried outside of the airport itself. I'll be with my parents the whole time, and we're unlikely to do anything but the most tourist-y stuff in the brief non-wedding time we have.

Has anyone else traveled to Bulgaria recently? Was everything fine? Should I get my gender marker changed before I go?

Thanks

Hi all! Thank you for taking the time to read this, any advice or help is super appreciated, in any form.

So Ive currently been on the NHS waiting list for porterbrook for a little over 2y years now but I am so desperate to get things started ASAP. With the infamously long NHS waiting list I decided to take to GenderCare.

I emailed Dr Lorimer (no response after triage),

I emailed Dr Dundas (said they were too busy)

And then I have recently emailed Dr Bhatia who has also not got back to me post triage. All of this was done via proton mail too.

Ideally I don’t want to go DIY as the idea of not having a professional to refer to worries me. This is, however, subject to change and I am still doing my research into DIY. It helps Im actually studying hormones as we speak at college, which is super interesting!

Gender GP sounds like it’s crumbling and never really offered much support regardless (so im told), so thats not an option. Besides, Im not sure that my GP would be happy to do shared care with them since they asked me to choose a reputable clinic when going private. Ive heard of many issues from others in regard to GP’s and GGP.

Im curious as to whether anyone on here knows of any other UK clinics, even if it does exclude working with my GP to some degree. Im starting to go a little bit ✨loco✨

Thank you everyone for any help / advice, hope you are all doing well!

Enjoy the snow! (Unless you hate it too)

If the TERFs get their way this can never be corrected. Apparent girl accidentally put down as male on her birth certificate. Government says it can't be changed. She'll presumably need to get a GRC when an adult.

Guardian article, so archive link. https://archive.is/13rtv

Hi,

Know I've asked this question before in a different format, but I guess anxiety is getting the best of me

How long did gdnrss hold onto your referral before reaching the hospital and which hospital, guess I'm seeking a clear idea now I know the terminology to clearly ask my question

I said in a previous post I don’t want a metoid but also don’t want scarring/skin graphs from a phaloplasty because imo it freaks me out and makes me queezy. I was asking around to some of my biology teachers about if they could use an embryo’s stem cells to create a lab brown penis instead of my own stem cells. Especially if the embryo was from my mom and my dad so it had similar dna and chromosomes. Would that be possible or no? I’m sure scientific research with improve in 10 years hopefully, I don’t get much bottom dysphoria but I really do not want to have sex until I have a penis if that makes sense. And I do want a penis with sperm so I can hopefully have a kid in the future with the man/woman I love

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCULKPiChU3/?hl=en

I wanted to share this here- the meeting is open to all transfeminine people (check out our instagram page @ dollsdiningcoop for more info) and is this time next week.

It'll be reoccuring but please attend- it's open to all ages, backgrounds, etc. Our goal is to facilitate community amongst trans people in Nottingham and to combat the economic disadvantage that trans women are at due to the current climate of fearmongering against them.

Hope to see you there! All transfems welcome- just a question of how willing you are to travel for free vegan chilli!

Hey everyone!

I recently had a venous draw for my hormones done, however my oestradial levels seem unusually high.

I’m injecting around 0.25ml of estrodiol enanthate into my thigh every 7 days and have done so for around 6 months. I’ve been on HRT as a whole for almost 1 year.

I am currently not taking any hormone blockers and I’m not sure if I need them based on my current readings.

If anyone is able to interpret my results and let me know if there are any changes you would make, I would be extremely grateful ☺️

Looks like I'm going to be on my lonesome as the friend who was coming has had a mental health attack, (as we all do) and can't manage the crowds and noise.

Anyone going and fancy a meet up?

I also have a spare ticket if anyone Notts way on was thinking abiut going and didn't get one?

I (23 nb) am having trouble getting my family to use the correct name and pronouns.

I’ve been transitioning socially since I was 16 and I’ve been on T for around 2 years. I’ve legally changed my name on everything but my passport (it costs £100 here) and I’m working on saving for top surgery.

I’ve been out to all of my family for around 4 years but everything is still the same, they call me by my deadname, use she/her pronouns, and they still use feminine terms when talking about/to me (e.g. calling me princess which I don’t think they used to until I came out).

I’ve tried so many times to use the right terms from doing a ‘misgenderjng jar’ (like a swear jar), to literally correcting them every single time. But it’s been years and they still don’t care.

I feel like it’s got even worse since my brother got a girlfriend/engaged because now apparently we have to keep the fact I’m trans a literal secret until my brother’s been married for a year and I honestly don’t think I can take it anymore.

I want to just send something in our family group chat begging them to actually finally respect me and my gender (they seem to be fine with it sometimes and we even had a big fight and cut off some family members bc they didn’t want me around my niece anymore). I want to tell them how much it hurts when they misgender me and it feels like I’m being stabbed and they keep twisting the knife.

I also want to send something else to my brother too. We never talk about our feelings but we really care about each other (at least I hope) so I want to talk to him about the issue of telling his fiancée and her family (who I haven’t met personally yet).

I’m not sure how to word any of this in a coherent way and in a way to have answers to the ‘arguments’ that ppl give like ‘I’ve known you as ___ for years though, I can’t change that now!’ Or ‘you’ve never minded before’ or the good old ‘they/them pronouns don’t make sense’ etc. so help with this would be super appreciated, as well as any recommendations for places/resources that might be useful.

I should probably also add that my parents (read: dad) is sometimes really mean and find it really funny when I get upset about things (my friends say he’s abusive but idk) and I also still live at home rent free bc I’m disabled and rely on my parents to take me to appointments etc. so I can’t really distance myself from them

my GP and i spoke yesterday about when i can start hormones (ftm) and she said she'd refer me to a clinic. (i'm in northern ireland) i stupidly made the mistake of looking up that clinic's wait time and they are currently seeing people who were referred to them in october 2017! seven years ago! i'm so frustrated. i cannot wait seven years for life saving healthcare, i feel miserable and completely hopeless. does anyone have any experience with this or reassurance??

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if anyone had a more recent experience with Tina Rashid? The main things I'm hoping to find out is the time it took from first contact to surgery, and the rough pricing so I can get an idea if it's a possibility for me.

Thank you for any info you send :)

Hi,

I already posted it to many subreddits, yet I still haven't found an answer for my issue. :(

I've been transitioning since July 2022 and everything was fine. My hormone levels were within female range and I was even capable of achieving feminine orgasms. My estradiol (E2) was at 350 pg/ml level and testosterone was obviously suppressed (at 30 ng/dl level). However, in June 2023 I had to start taking medication called Lamotrigine for my medical issues and I also got on ketogenic diet in September 2023 for the same reason. Unfortunately, in November 2023 something weird has started occurring to me - I was no longer capable of achieving feminine orgasms, my boobs stopped growing and I started feeling weakness in my joints all the time. I did the bloodwork multiple times and it turned out my estradiol has dropped by a lot without any apparent reason. My labs consistently showed that my estradiol was at 18 pg/ml (which is menopausal level of E2). Testosterone levels were still the same (30 ng/dl). I repeated bloodwork a few times later and estradiol was still extremely low.

I haven't changed my estrogen dose at all and it's definitely NOT low (3mg scrotal gel (3x 1 mg per day) and 4mg sublingual estrogen (4x 1mg per day)).

I've even tried estrogen injections but they didn't raise my estradiol levels either. Adding oral estrogen isn't helpful either.

I haven't been on ketogenic diet for months. The same applies to Lamotrigine.

At that point, I feel extremely helpless and miserable as I don't know what to do to get my feminization back. My transition is stuck and my endocrinologist doesn't know how to help me.

What should I do now? Do you think I have some issue with my hypothalamus or pituitary gland? How to explain the fact my transition has suddenly stopped and nothing works to fix it?

I just can't live that way...

BTW: The only thing that helps me to some extent (it still doesn't make me regain estrogen fully) is DHEA (25mg per day) or Prednisone 2mg per day. However, I'm a bit scared about the safety as that medication could make me more susceptible to infections and suppress my adrenal glands.

Do you have any suggestions? What should I do? I've already seen 2 endocrinologists and they didn't help me at all. They didn't even believe how much I suffer...

As mentioned in a previous post, I have a vaginoplasty consultation next month with Tina Rashid. I’m not sure if she’ll tell me that I need any electrolysis yet but I have a feeling she will. I’m just wondering if anyone could give me an approximate timeframe for this? I’m also wondering if insurance would cover this if it’s for SRS? I’m a private patient.

I’m a bit worried after a post a saw on here the other day from saying that they had been undergoing electrolysis since 2021 before having surgery earlier this year. I hadn’t anticipated that it could take that long and the thought of needing to wait that length of time is pretty depressing. It’s making me think about vulvoplasty instead (I was considering this before). I’m asexual anyway but it would still be nice to keep my options open just in case I meet the right person, but I’ll take zero/shallow depth if I have to! Presumably this won’t be an issue if I bring this up at the consultation? My main concern is just getting rid of that awful thing between my legs.

basically just the title - ive had my diagnosis and have my meeting with an endocrinologist in a couple weeks - im pretry sure the GP im with now is happy to do it but I’d like to have some back ups that I could switch to should the need arise.

I have already done the initial call with Zofia, and have finally been able to get the required blood tests done so I can do the call with the Doctors now. Does anyone have and experiences with these calls they are willing to share.

I especially want to know what kind of questions they will ask me, since I am very bad at giving answers on the spot and don't want to give them the wrong idea.

Thanks :3

i have 2 transfem friends and im hoping to contribute to their surgeries down the line and i learned recently that NHS Scotland covers FFS surgeries. Does this only apply to Scottish residents or can English people like us travel to Scotland for the surgeries?