#daventry gic

[sad-rpg]

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[ukftm]

Does anyone know how far in advance of appointments daventry sends out letters?

Any followers recently received a letter and able to advise?

~ Alex

[ukftm]

I’m at daventry as well. My doctor constantly seems to by lying about timelines. he also is pushing me into ALT lower surgery and saying it would be much better than the RFF I had been saying I wanted even though after speaking to people I know I will never be a good candidate for ALT. He’s also has been telling my to try and get a pump that has never been used in this country and hardly ever been used. I thought he was amazing when I first met him. Now I can see he’s talking out of his ass

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve also been facing issues.

Unfortunately GIC doctors are sometimes a bit lacking in their knowledge when it comes to the specifics of surgery, although this isn’t an excuse for sharing misinformation at all.

~ Alex

[ukftm]

URGENT- Is the second appointment at Daventry a physical? What actually happens in this appointment?

I believe this is often the case, but hopefully some followers will be able to confirm.

During the physical they will check your general overall health, including heart, lungs, reflexes and abdomen.  You will often be required to remove some clothing but should be able to keep underwear, including any binders, on.

~ Alex

[ukftm]

does daventry expedite referrals from tavistock?

I’ve not heard that they do, though that doesn’t mean that they don’t. You could contact either Daventry or the Tavi yourself, though, to see if they can tell you any more about that.

Followers, any experience with this?

~ James

[ukftm]

i got referred to Daventry last april and they keep pushing back when my estimated first appointment will be, they said it would be june but now saying late september, would going privately be a lot faster considering the fact that nhs clinics will most likely have many appointments etc extended in the future?

It depends on how quickly you’re able to get a private appointment.  If you think that this is something that you might have the funds to do, and want to do, then you could contact private clinicians and enquire about their availability before booking an appointment.

To compare, it usually takes at least 6 months from your first GIC appointment to start testosterone, although it’s not uncommon for it to take longer than this.  In comparison, it generally only takes 1–2 appointments to start testosterone privately, although this will depend on each clinician’s process and your individual circumstances, and timings are generally more flexible.

~ Alex

[ukftm]

Hey, just wondering if anyone knows if daventry at still behind on letters?

Any followers know what the timescales are like for letters from Daventry at the moment?

~ Alex

[ukftm]

Hi guys, I've been looking on the daventry gic website and they don't seem to be updating their waiting times list. I was referred in September last year and have no idea when to expect my first appointment. Every time I feel like I'm getting closer, reports are saying that the wait is longer and it gets further away. Is it worth emailing and asking what the current wait time is? Also, could do with some kind of pep talk so I don't feel so negative. Thanks for doing a great job guys. Ed

The most recent waiting time information we have is that people can expect to be waiting fifteen months from referral to a first appointment at Daventry - so you’re probably looking at January 2018 unless things speed up in the next few months. Normally, they get in contact a couple of months beforehand to give you an appointment date - but you can certainly get in touch with them and ask for an update and for any information as to when you’re likely to hear from them next.

I’m sorry to hear you’re finding the waiting demoralising - it’s definitely tough, especially if you see other people getting their first appointments, getting on with transition etc while you feel stuck. There were a couple of ways I dealt (and still deal) with this - if I’m getting unbearably jealous of other people, or seeing other people talking about transition was reminding me of how far I had to go, I tend to just disengage from trans spaces for a while. This might include unfollowing people, temporarily leaving facebook groups, and blocking websites. It gives you a bit of brainspace to at least try and think about other things, and it stops you seeing people who are ahead of you getting frustrated with their own transitions. I often see people earlier in transition being quite rude to people later in transition who are having difficulties, and the feeling seems to be “well, why are you complaining? At least you’ve already [had one appointment]/[got testosterone]/[got a surgery referral]” (delete as appropriate). I understand that, I really do, because we’ve all been there, but when these kinds of discussions turn into arguments about who has it worse, it’s just really unpleasant for everyone, and sometimes it’s necessary to walk away from those situations where you know you’re going to get riled up, for the sake of your own sanity.

Another thing I tend to do is try and find something else to concentrate on if I’ve done everything in my power to improve the situation and am just wrestling with circumstances out of my control (e.g. waiting times between appointments or for letters). This might be something transition related, e.g. setting myself an exercise goal, or it might be something to do with one of my interests, or something university related. I definitely find that thinking too much about how far I feel I have to go makes me feel worse - e.g. I’m currently waiting on second stage metoidioplasty and hysto, and often find it quite difficult seeing other people getting surgery dates, because I don’t have the time or money to go ahead with it at the moment. But I thought about it a bit, and realised that my general dysphoria coping mechanisms actually work quite well when I’m in isolation, and it’s only when I see other people’s blogs and things like that that I start to feel particularly frustrated. Obviously, this might not be of any help to you, but I thought I would share my experience of things that help just in case. 

Another thing I’d say is that, though obviously it doesn’t really help when you’re waiting - I vividly remember getting my first testosterone injection, and I remember that as soon as it happened, I just stopped caring about all the waiting and difficult situations I’d been in to reach that point. Though when you’re waiting, it feels like people getting things days or weeks or months ahead of you is making a huge difference and you’re being held back by comparison, when you actually get to those things, that time difference stops being an issue. I remember someone I knew got testosterone about three weeks before I did and I was really, really upset about it at the time, but now nearly five years on, it’s made absolutely no difference to where either of us are. Maybe that’s of no help, but maybe it’s comforting to know you won’t always feel this way.

Finally - I see people talking quite often about feeling like the goalposts are being moved when waiting time estimates keep changing. It’s really easy to take these changes kind of personally, or feel like the clinics just don’t care and are lying about waiting times or just making them up as they go along. Understanding a bit about how and why these estimates change can help, if this is something you have trouble with. Very basically, the waiting time estimates are just that - estimates. The clinic makes predictions based on how long people JUST getting their first appointment have been waiting, but those predictions are only accurate if the waiting list is staying around the same length, and people are moving along it at about the same rate. Things that commonly affect waiting times are increase in the number of people being referred, new doctors joining, and doctors leaving or having to take time off. If you imagine there are ten people on the waiting list, the clinic offers first appointments to five people a week, and five people a week are added to the waiting list, then the waiting list always stays around the same length, and so the waiting time stays around the same for everyone. 

What’s been happening over the last couple of years is that clinics are getting a LOT more new referrals than they bargained on, so while five years ago they might have had 100 people join the waiting list over the course of a year, nowadays there might be 500 people joining the waiting list per year. They can’t necessarily predict how many people will join the waiting list each year, which means they can’t be too accurate when they give estimates of waiting times. They also might have unexpected staff absences or people leaving, which reduces the number of new patients they can see - and obviously if there are lots and lots of people seeing a gender clinic, they have to allocate time for all of those people’s second, third, etc appointments, so they might not have the capacity to increase the number of first appointments offered to people (or might have to decrease the number of first appointments while they work on discharging people already at the clinic).

I’m sorry that this is quite long, but I hope it’s at least somewhat helpful!

~ James