Numbers of Surgeries and referrals at Charing Cross FOI

[JENNYJET]

How do I know? I am living it! I thought I was ready, and even though I fully accept my current state of being, I was never likely to be ready and I suggest that no potential candidate for reassignment surgery will ever be ready.

The Psychiatrist may listen, consider, evaluate and even indulge but can never fully determine one's true motivation to have officially sanctioned mutilation of one's body.

I endured the CHARING CROSS clinic, got surgery but no solution to my in depth problems regards my identity as a human being.

[Casaluna]

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[JustMe]

I must admit that I am inclined to agree with Caitlin. One size fits all definitely doesn't work in the Trans Community and I was under the impression that the Care Pathway was designed to treat each of us at our own pace BUT so long as it's no less that 2 years in RLE prior to surgery. So, I thought that if a person is not ready for surgery and needs more time - this would be granted to them (within reason and not extending out to 10 years for example because somebody else could be treated in the mean time). To be honest, I am ready for surgery now and would go ahead if I could but I know that I have to wait until the 2 year point is completed. I am living my life now quite happily (RLE or not), my partner accepts the person I have developed into and resultingly is happy too. For me, the surgery is not the great problem solver some perceive it to be. It's basically correcting what is wrong, it just means that my body will be right and that I don't have to do the things like:-
1) Tucking all of the time.
2) Retucking after I've been to the loo.
3) Wear 2 pairs of knickers to hold things in place.
4) Wear a pair of support knickers under my swimming costume.

[JENNYJET]

I completely agree Christine. It really annoys me when (what is a probably a very small minority of) post op women who not only trivialise the delays but also seem to view it as some sort of right of passage. i.e "if I had to jump through X number of unreasonable hoops you can too so quit complaining".

"Jet" how do you know those women are not ready for surgery and trying to rush things? The fact is the vast majority are fully ready and a further well established fact is that there are massive delays in the NHS system right now. And that's not OK!

We are not talking about rushing or accelerating the procedure but simply achieving it in an acceptable time frame without prolonged delays. Just because you needed more time does not mean everyone does.

How do I know if patients are not ready and/or rushing surgery? Tell you what, try asking some post-op's if they had wished for either more time or more intensive examination of mental equilibrium before either requesting or being accepted for life changing surgery. Many patients sail through and I suggest they are the younger types but many of us are in later life and we find it somewhat difficult given we may have a full life within an opposite perception of life.

I sought with bloody mindedness and vigor to get reassignment despite all the heavy medical challenges, I willingly signed off my future existence in the ward at Charing Cross knowing that given my medical problems, I may not emerge at all.

I did emerge and although I was delighted and in the expected post surgical discomfort, something was not quite as I had been told to expect. It took many months and even now 4 years hence, I reside in a strange world and is not what I expected.

All I am trying to do here is to warn folks that feel in great need to get Reassignment, even if you have no doubts, prepare for the possibility of no beneficial outcome.The world is hostile, we do not fit within the norm and there will always be someone to crash into your bubble of tranquility, and it will hurt you deeply.

[Christine]

From what I can tell, the vast majority of post-ops are delighted with their transition; I dare say that there's a high correlation with people who go into it with their eyes open and don't expect the world. I also don't expect the world, I just want my transitional period over and done with, and I'm less than delighted to see the months turning into years and the years multiplying, especially as none of that is for my benefit but because I've been held back due to certain clinicians who seem averse to dealing with patients who have other problems in their lives as well as the usual litany of outrageous administrative c*ck-ups.

I'm now halfway through the fourth year of the medical profession "helping" me through my transition and don't expect to see any more progress in this year or the next. Although I'm aware that not everyone is happy with the outcome, making me wait 5+ years to get through it isn't fixing that problem, it's just creating a new one.