GRCs, NHS, and Being a Transgender Adult in the UK

[Zardnaar]

Once again there seems to be a conflation of two separate issues. On the one hand there are gender affirming surgeries (top, bottom, face, tracheal shave, etc.), which are constrained by an actual lack of supply. Bottom surgery is a complicated procedure in a niche field of practice and there is a small number surgeons globally who actually do reliably good work, so wait times are consequently and understandably (if regrettably) long.

On the other hand there is the GIC system in the UK which is an entirely manufactured problem invented by a people who see us as an infestation to be managed rather than people who deserve dignified care. We know this because most countries who have implemented self-id do not experience this problem.¹ So then the problem isn’t due to budgetary constraints or convoluted interlocking bureaucratic systems or medical exigencies - indeed the GICs add to budgetary constraints by necessitating an entire parallel bureaucracy of gatekeepers to limit service for a comparatively minuscule population; and WPATH has maintained for a half a decade now that self-identification is sufficient for a gender dysphoria diagnosis. Parliament could vote tomorrow to end the GICs and move to a self-id system, and while many problems would remain - both with the NHS and with trans care - the problem of wait times for HRT would resolve almost overnight.

¹In Chicago I made the mistake of trying to go through an endo at a time when specialists were on massive backlog due to COVID, so I had a 3 month wait for my visit, but once the visit day arrived,the time from entering the clinic to drugs-in-hand was about 90 minutes.

Here they're making an effort with safety rooms at school and things like bathrooms.

Successive governments just tinker and kick can down the road on big issues.

Which leads to cratering support levels. Socially liberal more or less but good luck getting much done outside crisis management.

 

[schlaufuchs]

I did somewhat deliberately put it out there to be contentious…

I do think the NHS should cover quality of life issues (it is not just A&E). However I am opposed to surgical interventions to treat non-physiological conditions (not trans specific - I have had bad experiences in this area)

The things I am describing are not even (necessarily) for surgical interventions, but intake appointments for basic drugs that literally every cis person can (and does!) receive to little fanfare with a simple 15-minute visit to a gp. That’s what we have to wait 25 years to get, the right to copay 50mg spiro and 1mg oral estradiol*.

But beyond that, my brain is part of my physiology. The discord between the way my internal self perceives my gender and the gender my body presents externally compels my brain to seek out self-destructive coping mechanisms to deal with the dissonance. In my case that meant a lot a lot a lot a lot of drinking. So it seems to me rather sensible from a preventative medicine standpoint to ensure I have straightforward, easy access to very low-cost, low-risk medication that make that drinking basically immediately go away with one simple trick, rather than having to deal with the administrative and financial headache of paying for my new liver or dialysis 10 years down the line (to say nothing of emergency care in a drunk driving accident, heaven forbid).

*little joke for the dolls in the audience

 

[Chukchi Husky]

For me, I never tried to destroy myself through drinking. I don't drink alcohol and one of the reasons that I've never told anyone is that I feared that I would become addicted. Looking at how my life has turned out so far, especially after leaving school, I may not have done anything as noticably destructive, but I didn't have a life. I felt like a ghost, a shadow that just haunted or ruined other people's lives by just existing. I remember thinking more than once that if I was anyone in a movie, it was the camera, just watching as everyone else lived their lives while all I could do is watch.

I did have one addiction, playing lengthy open world games that allowed me to play as a female character. That started when I first played Oblivion back in 2006, but even before then I did play games with female characters. I didn't really play these games for the gameplay so much as it let me pretend to live in a world where I'm female. I justified it by saying that it's a fantasy world, if I can play as a elf, an orc or even a lizard then it's not so strange to play as a female character. In my current Fallout 4 playthough (which is close to 400 hours), I spent a lot of time not playing it as a game but doing things like collecting dresses, I don't mean like the kind of outfits expected in these kind of games but just ordinary dresses.

 

[emzie]

And the GIC is not an outlier. In November 2022, Tyne and Wear was taking first appointments for those who scheduled in February of 2017 and taking second appointments for those who had their first appointment in March of 2019. Sheffield is taking first appointments from those who were referred in April of 2018. Exeter is taking first appointments from those who were referred in June, 2016.

For comparison, I was referred to my endocrinologist in late 2015. I started HRT in January 2016. I had bottom surgery in Jan 2022. In the time it took a trans person from Exeter to merely start the first step, I've already finished the hike.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

For comparison, I was referred to my endocrinologist in late 2015. I started HRT in January 2016. I had bottom surgery in Jan 2022. In the time it took a trans person from Exeter to merely start the first step, I've already finished the hike.

And there's people in this very thread who want to make that even harder for them, disgraceful

 

[Chukchi Husky]

To make it worse, Wales has no gender clinics, so anyone living in Wales is sent to London. I know the Bristol Channel is in the way but for someone living in Cardiff or Swansea, Exeter is closer than London.

 

[Angst]

Surely preventing just-convicted cismale rapists from taking advantage of low thresholds on official recognition to get sentenced to women's prisons cannot be the only factor. A law requiring someone to demonstrate eligibility for a GRC at the time of their crime in order to receive consideration for prison selection would neatly settle that without impacting every other transgender person in the UK.

small sidenotes on this, it baffles me that one would deny rights and healthcare for any group because of the actions of one individual. nevermind moral qualms, it's just not structurally sound

 

[amadeus]

And I find it implausible that there are no legal workarounds which would not negatively affect those outside of penal custody.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

small sidenotes on this, it baffles me that one would deny rights and healthcare for any group because of the actions of one individual. nevermind moral qualms, it's just not structurally sound

It's because they hate us

 

[Angst]

It's because they hate us

yea, i know. :/

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Going to point out that things are getting steadily worse for british trans people, IF they even get seen by a gic

 

[Zardnaar]

For comparison, I was referred to my endocrinologist in late 2015. I started HRT in January 2016. I had bottom surgery in Jan 2022. In the time it took a trans person from Exeter to merely start the first step, I've already finished the hike.

Private or public?

Here there's a 30 year wsit. Not because they won't fund it mire because there's only 1 surgeon. They can't sped the money fast enough.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Going to point out that things are getting steadily worse for british trans people, IF they even get seen by a gic

It's genuinely unhinged

https://twitter.com/x/status/1705959126621106486

 

[Crezth]

At this point the British trans peoples should be reading V for Vendetta and treating it as gospel, maybe even living by its teachings, because, I mean, come the f*** on.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

At this point the British trans peoples should be reading V for Vendetta and treating it as gospel, maybe even living by its teachings, because, I mean, come the f*** on.

I did read through V for Vendetta a couple of years ago. One thing that I noticed was how people in that version of Britain would say things like "sure the fascists are bad and killed off all the minorities, but at least they gave us peace, order and stability again."

 

[Birdjaguar]

Moderator Action: Senseless bickering removed.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Moderator Action: @Zardnaar I suggest you find a different thread to post in today.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Appropo of nothing; if a community is saying "hey, we feel threatened and vulnerable" it might work in your favor to actually listen to them and not just automatically assume they're hysterical

Or hey, just ignore that and stay ignorant and forever clueless as to why members of that community are becoming increasingly hostile towards you