Five Year Update
It seems like people are still finding this blog from time to time, so I thought I’d post an update for my chest’s fifth birthday today.
There isn’t really much to say in terms of my chest itself. It hasn’t changed very much in the last two years, but the scars have continued to fade and flatten and I think the area where the stitch got infected is less obvious. My body has changed because I’ve been on a low does of testosterone (on and off, but about 18 months total), though I don’t think it has affected the shape of my chest much.
In terms of where the UK is at with top surgery for nonbinary people, it seems to be a double-edged sword where gender clinics have become more open to the diversity of trans experiences over the last five years, but at the same time the infrastructure of NHS gender clinics is in complete collapse, so it doesn’t make any fucking difference becuase people can’t access treatment in any reasonable timescale. For me, it took 3 years and 8 months from referall to the clinic to having my surgery, which now sounds supersonic when you consider that my partner who was referred in 2018, waited four years just to have an initial appointment, by which point they had been on private hormone treatment for 2 years.
Trans care isn’t the only area of the NHS that is suffering under the tories, obviously, but it does seem to be an area at the forefront of defacto privitasiation because people are desperate for treatment that is just not being made available.
Which is just to say, I am aware that I am very lucky to have got this life-changing surgery when and where I did, and I’m rooting hard for everyone out there who is struggling to access the care they need.
Although my surgeon, Grit Dabritz does not seem to offer private top surgery as far as I am aware, Ioannis Ntanos, who works with her at the same hospital in Manchester, does. I’ve heard positive things about him, so for those in the UK looking for private top surgeons, he could be worth considering.
