| > How do you know the referral was medically necessary? What does "medically necessary" mean to you? Does it include changing the gender identifier on your passport? Quoting the video: ] Once you're in the medical system, you can also change the legal sex that is recorded on your birth certificate and your passport. In England, you cannot change either of those things without first obtaining a doctor's permission. > Perhaps there is more to running the NHS than saying everyone who is demanding elective procedures should get them in 18 weeks. Which has diddly-squat to do with the issue. According to the NHS, gender dysphoria is a medical condition, and treatment is not viewed as an elective procedure. This has been the case since 1999, as the video points out: ] The diagnostic requirement is very baked into the NHS and British law. In 1999, there was a landmark legal case. A trust in Lancaster announced they weren't gonna fund transition anymore on the grounds that it was "merely cosmetic," and they were sued by three trans patients who said, actually, it was necessary to alleviate their gender identity disorder, as it was called at the time. The patients won, which meant that we have a right to free transition, And according to the NHS Constitution, patients have a right to start care within 18 weeks of referral. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-start-co... . Not 19 years. > have died or are dying or left to suffer for years in physical pain. Yes, it's tragic, and shouldn't happen. But don't let that become the excuse that others must suffer as well. > practically unheard of 20, which were invented in the modern era thanks to innovation in medicine to allow indulgences unknown to human civilisation before the technology existed - i think resources can be better used We know you think transgender care is "frankly self indulgent procedures", so of course you would think that. Your viewpoint is not backed by medical evidence nor British law. Further, as the video points out, "if a cis woman goes through menopause, she can get oestrogen from her GP. If a trans woman wants it, we have to go to the gender clinic". Why that disparity? Estrogen for feminizing hormone therapy is about as old as the NHS itself (eg, Christine Jorgensen in the 1950s), so you can hardly claim it was 'practically unheard of 20 [years ago]'. And hormone therapy is cheap. Assuming https://www.fiscaltiger.com/the-cost-of-gender-transition/ is right, generic estradiol costs about $4/month and the anti-androgen spironolactone costs between $4 and $12 per month. And that's retail prices the US, not wholesale prices the NHS can get. Not everyone wants gender affirming surgery. They still need to get a referral from the GP for hormone therapy, or to change their passport gender marker, and the waiting list is years long. |
They can type things like that all they like. They don't reflect reality. My cousin, in daily pain, was told he'd have to wait 5 years for a kidney op last year. This year he nearly died from a resultant infection. Why do you think repeating a meaningless target is useful? It is ignored completely. And not availing of it doesn't make you special.
> > practically unheard of 20 [years], which were invented in the modern era thanks to innovation in medicine to allow indulgences unknown to human civilisation before the technology existed - i think resources can be better used
A handful of historical examples from recent post war years is not a trend. If it were a real need of real people, rather a byproduct of something else, it might have been more of an issue over the past 20k years. But the reality is, low latency comms networks in the past 15 years are the main driver.
> Further, as the video points out, "if a cis woman goes through menopause, she can get oestrogen from her GP. If a trans woman wants it, we have to go to the gender clinic".
Because one is medically indicated to help people and the other is pretty much a recreational drug not medically indicated for that purpose.
> And hormone therapy is cheap. Assuming https://www.fiscaltiger.com/the-cost-of-gender-transition/ is right, generic estradiol costs about $4/month and the anti-androgen spironolactone costs between $4 and $12 per month. And that's retail prices the US, not wholesale prices the NHS can get.
I presume you mean by trans woman, biological male. They can't undergo the menopause. If you want it as a recreational drug, then buy it yourself. Surely there are plenty of private doctors willing to write any script if the medical need is thusly so obvious?