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Just came back from counseling and found out by my counselor that OHIP (Ontario health insurance plan) only covers transition if you go through a specific trans-clinic. They make you go through RLT for 2 years before you can even have hormone therapy. Yet they have a 90% decline rate. They make you go through 4 years of HRT before the Srs and still can decline you.
If you dont go through the clinic, you can have it all sooner however its more expensive. Either or however Hormones come out of own wallet/purse.
The SRS (Vagino-Plasty) for trans girls is 25 grand and up in ontario specifically Toronto. Hormones here are $150 a month.
They also raised the transiton age without parental concent, to 21 so it may be a few monthes away for me, it makes me feel even more stuck again.
So as I think everyone can understand, I am ticked off.
please let me know what you all think of this;
Erin Amelia Fletcher
Comments
Well, you can understand why
Well, you can understand why they make it so difficult, eh! After all, the Ontario gov't just pissed away a billion health care dollars on taking consultants to lunch... so they have to save health care dollars somewhere.
I do have a question. How can they raise the "age of consent" to 21??? We are allowed to vote and drink at age 19, and are considered to be legally "adult" at 19, so... how can they say you need "parental consent"???
PS, I'm still upset with them for cancelling chiropractic coverage.
(Sorry, was thinking 19 and wrote 18 last night. Have corrected my error. Brute)
Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue
Age of Majority (adulthood)
In Canada you are an adult at 19. No agency may say you have to be 21. That isn't legal in Canada.
Edit[http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada-europa/france/canadaaz/a... I have since discovered it varies by province. In Ontario you are and adult at 18. Not 21 though I was right about that.]
I don't know where you got your information from, but I suggest you get it again.
You should try to transition in BC. There is no 'trans' clinic. And medical doesn't cover anything related to hormones or anti-androgens.
My antiandrogens and estrogens come to only $85. $60/month for the Androcur and $18/month for the estrogens. The rest is pharmacy fees. So I'm not sure where you get the $150 from either.
Dayna.
How awful for you
Requiring a two-year RLT BEFORE hormones isn't just unreasonable, it's deliberate, out-and-out cruelty. It has no valid basis in any science or accepted clinical practice. Then followed by four years more before SRS? Please! It looks to me as if the old boys of the Ontario medical establishment are having themselves a nice game of "kick the tranny and laugh." It's not too surprising, though, given that Toronto is home of the notorious CAMH, formerly the Clarke Institute aka Jurassic Clarke, which in turn is home of the equally notorious "it's-not-reparative-therapy-because-they're-trans-not-gay" child-abuser, "Dr." Ken Zucker. Please, please tell me that's not the clinic they make you go through to get coverage and if it is, do whatever you must to avoid it....
FYI, you should be able to fly to Thailand for SRS with Dr. Suporn, widely considered one of the four best in the world, for around 20 grand or less, travel and accommodations included. The others charge double or triple that, and his results and the care you get at his clinic are apparently unsurpassed. I think he requires 6 momths living full-time and a doctor's or gender specialist's letter, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't require parental consent over age 18.
Also, I'm a bit surprised the cost of hormones is so high there; I get everything I need for HRT here in Seattle, out-of-pocket, for less than $75 a month (spironolactone, finasteride, prometrium, and estradiol pills). Of course, I haven't paid attention to the exchange rate lately--are US$ and CDN$ wildly out of whack with each other at the moment?
Like lambs for the slaughter
I had my SRS in August of 2006, and paid about 12,000. When I got there I found out that anyone who comes in with the money will get the surgery. Oh, they make a lot of different noises but that is just to keep the high need for order people in the US confused.
If you don't have your so called, "carry letter" then for $200 you can go to a "shrink" and buy one. Oh, I get so sick of this guy game some SRS recipients engage in, where the Doc you have chosen is the very best one. One of the best parts of transition for me was that I no longer had to sit around at lunch with guys who insisted that their Ford truck was the best, and their Remington Rifle could shoot to the moon and kill an elk deep in the underbrush. Geeze, some intact males are the most egotistical insecure ass holes I ever met!
There are literally dozens upon dozens of SRS "Docs" there. SRS is the national industry. I used Kamol, and as far as I am concerned I came out fine. If money is really an issue, Kamol's people were contemplating offering in house proceedures to foreign patients like they do the locals. In other words, you cut out the hospital (piyiavate) entirely and do the whole proceedure, and post op recovery right in the clinic and for about half the price.
I have to tell you that when I was there "Ladyboys" were all over the place. Brothels are big business. We seem to be tempted to make this SRS thing more than it is. Believe me it is nothing like an open heart proceedure and there is no justification at all to glorify it. Geeze people, they cut your balls off and throw them away. Every farmer I know with more than just a few head of cattle can to that, and does on a regular basis. The only thing that makes it hard for Humans is that we are just so damned easy to kill from simple shock.
So then, they gut your penis like a dead fish, turn it inside out, and then shove it up between your anus and your bladder. God, I don't think I want to know how they create the hole but from some of the proceedures I have watched, I would say that what they do is extremely indelicate.
Have you ever watched them putting in breast implants or doing liposuction? Geeze I have seen brick layers be more delicate about it. No damn wonder we hurt afterward! I think they must take the rounded end of a shovel handle and drive it up there with a hammer. GAH! Then they shove as much inch wide gauze into the gutted fish and shove it up there as far as it will fit and that is what makes the hole stay there. Those of you who still have a sack with balls in it, if that don't make em draw up like frightened children, then you have iron courage. One refinement that they did on the operation is that they take the seminal vesticle and attach it to the back of the new "vagina" so that it's dribbling will moisten the vagina. I think that may just be the most delicate part of the operation.
So, don't let the medical and psych people have their way all the time. I hesitate to guess how many of their dictates are driven by very self serving motives. The damn drug companies sure wag the dog on a regular basis.
All I ever took for drugs associated with my SRS was Estrogen. Oh, I took spiro for about a month and then decided to get my balls whacked to eliminate the need for that. It was $1000. Oh, and don't let some guy tell you that it makes the SRS cost more if you have been whacked. Kamol said it did not make any difference.
The single most important thing about SRS is to make sure you Dilate no matter how much it hurts and how much you cry. I didn't do too well with it and now I am fighting to increase 3 1/2 of depth and less than an inch of diameter. It is my own damn fault.
I am gong to offer this as an opinion and it may just piss off a lot of people. I don't think that many "Neo Women" actually find husbands. Now people can argue with me and if you can show me where I am wrong, then I will happily admitt that I was full of it. In my own case, I am not sure I know how to behave in front of a male. I don't think I know how to attract them, and believe me if I could I would be so happy. So, if you sit back and take a long look at it, maybe SRS is just a farce. Maybe we should just get the nuts whacked and get a nice superficial set of Labia and let it go at that. Some of my friends insist that they are "Lesbians". So, if they are, then what the heck do you want with a Cock Pit?
I am tired cranky and I'm goin' t bed.
Khadijah
Solution
One thing I can think of: move to Quebec, right next door :-)
Rather than spend years waiting to satisfy some idiots, you can spend a few months to get your hormones, start your RLT right away, and 2 years after get your SRS. With the proper follow-up, the government will pay for it. And they won't send you abroad where so many things can go wrong.
I've no idea what moving and becoming a Quebec resident entails though.
My 2 cents ^_^
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick looking for someone who doesn't give a damn about her past"
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick who's addicted to sunlight!"