#private transition

[ukftm]

My little brother has just turned 13 a month ago and has knows he’s trans for a long while and is fully certain he wants to go medical. While our parents are a little split on their opinions on him transitioning, I just want him to be happy - obviously.

Do you know if there’s owt he can do right now medical wise? Being a 17 year old cis guy leaves me with a lot of questions and Google’s a bitch, so I’m not sure what a 13 year old can do for his gender emotions.

Hi Anon,

Due to your brother being 13 he may be prescribed hormone blockers, but that would only been done after a referral from a Gender Identity Clinic. A GP would not prescribe these without the GIC giving the go ahead.

Waiting lists for GICs are multiple years long, so he will want to go to his GP and get a referral. While he will be referred to a clinic appropriate for his age at the time of his referral, depending on where he lives, he could be 18 before he sees the GIC as waiting lists are so long.

So unless he wants to seek the advice of a private clinician who he would have to pay for private advice and who MIGHT prescribe hormone blockers privately, all he can do is get his name on the NHS GIC waiting list and wait until he gets an appointment.

It’s worth noting however that due to the current climate and the negative focus on trans health, accessing trans healthcare both privately and on the NHS is getting more difficult and rules/procedures are getting tighter.

Due to waiting lists being many years long this will give him the time to be absolutely sure of his gender identity and what he wants in terms of surgery once that becomes an option for him.

In the mean time we have a lot of posts about transitioning on the NHS and privately and information on hormone blockers, so it may be a good idea if you have a read of these. Your brother may find our blog helpful for the emotional side of things also as there are plenty asks that may help him understand what he is feeling

[ollierachnid]

trans people in the uk who have (or are in the process of) transitioned privately, particularly in terms of getting testosterone. what services did you use, how did you find using them, would you recommend them. etc?

[kipplekipple]

Hey, I was going to reblog your post about private transition in the UK but I got nervous but I want to help. Figured if I send it to you then it’ll get seen.

Hi, here’s some info on private options for transition in the UK.

https://your-gp.com/gp-services/all-gp-services/gender-clinic/

Your GP in Ediburgh take patients from as long as they can travel there, you don’t need to travel there. This is also where the NHS sends some patients for their second opinion before surgery. At the other end of the country you have.

https://www.thelondontransgenderclinic.uk/our-transgender-surgery-practice-london/diagnosis-therapy/

I believe this is the place but yeah, there’s kinda not a lot of options in the UK, I’m pretty sure last I heard if you’re in Northern Ireland you have to travel to England for NHS as well but my information may be out of date.

If you can get a shared care agreement with your GP it makes it easier and cheaper for running bloods and long term when your dosage is stable your GP should be able to give NHS prescriptions for HRT. In terms of waiting, there’s still bull shit you have to wait for, you won’t walk away from your first appointment with any meds or anything and they don’t really do the “counselling” the NHS does (inverted commas because it’s not confidential) in terms of voice therapy I’m sure whichever comsultant you saw would help more and in terms of surgery it’s expensive but there are private options but given the minimum legal wait of about two years and Covid backlog (probably) things could change before then if you’re just starting.

Also the UK pretty much requires a name change before surgery, it’s a bit more lax on HRT but they like it because if you don’t or if you identify as nonbinary they will read it as you being unsure, although as long as you present when you go and see them it’s not too bad. I know people who have traveled abroad for surgery, it doesn’t make it much quicker, you still generally need to wait a few years and be on HRT.

These are my opinions I am not like licensed in any way, your mileage may vary. You may want to consult you GP, consultant, and/or a lawyer.

Thanks so much Anon!!!

@hamenthotep this may be relevant for you too

[thesamthatiam]

Hello everyone! I am 4 weeks post op today so here is a little update :)

[ukftm]

Hi, this might have been answered before & im sorry if so (I’m dyslexic & adhd so it’s hard for me to look thru so many posts), but I was wondering if you could help. I’m looking for a private gender therapist as I know nhs waitlist is long. Do you have an idea of how much it would cost, wait times, how to contact them & how to set up shared care, etc? I’m a student in Cardiff at term time but in England for summers. Not sure if my parents will support this, so I’m broke & on my own. Thank you.

This page should help!

~ James

[ukftm]

Hi, I identify as ftm and live in Scotland. I’ve looked online and can’t see much around this. I have been referred to a GIC, but am looking at going private. The main things I’m looking at are the cost, how much would T, top and phalloplasty cost? As well as, how I transfer from NHS to private? I should be clear that I haven’t had an initial appointment and I know each private appointment is £200-£300 depending on the clinician. Thanks.

In Scotland your closest private clinic is YourGP in Edinburgh. There’s no real process for ‘switching’ from NHS to private if you’re on a GIC waiting list: you just contact the private clinic to book an appointment, and you don’t need to do anything about the NHS waiting list (which you might well wish to stay on - see the end of the post for more about this).

You’ll likely need three appointments before starting testosterone, and a further few appointments for surgery referrals.

Appointments are £250 each, testosterone and blood test costs are variable - you might be able to get these via your GP with a shared care arrangement, in which case there will be no charge for them, but otherwise you will have to pay private prescription costs (normally they charge £150 for nebido, which lasts three months at a time. They might be willing to prescribe sustanon, which is considerably cheaper, but I’ve not heard of them doing this).

Surgery costs are also variable - you’re usually looking at a minimum of £7000 for top surgery, but this does depend on the surgeon. To get phalloplasty privately could easily be £50,000.

If you’re concerned about the cost of some or all of this, I’ll point out that it’s pretty common for people to go private to get started on hormones while they’re on the waiting list for an NHS clinic, and then switching to NHS care when they reach the top of the GIC waiting list and so getting surgery referrals via the NHS.

 ~ James

[ukftm]

Hey... I am on the nhs waiting list for Nottingham gender clinic but I’m going nuts and my disphoria feels worse everyday. Does anyone know how much going private would be and how I would? Thinking of going private and getting a loan to pay for it Thanks in advance x

Sorry to hear you’re struggling with waiting times!

The private transition page has an intro to the various private options and basic information about costs - the individual clinics will have more detail about their prices.

~ James

[ukftm]

Do you have an estimate on how much it would take to start T privately?

This post should help with an overview of the process and costs involved.

~ James