There are 3,800,000 people in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. We've banned marriage discrimination by popular vote. We legalized gay marriage. We've had a Pride parade and festival for forty years. This could be considered a tolerant town. And yet. . .
E's doctor put her on estrogen. She noticed an immediate change. She has energy. She is calmer. She is happy. She seems comfortable in her own skin. It did more to calm her anxiety than anything anyone ever prescribed for anxiety. Then her doctor stopped the estrogen because she didn't have the money for labs/bloodwork and insurance provided by her union refuses to cover it (jerks). Then they give her back the estrogen. But wait, she still smokes. So the doctor pulled the estrogen. It's like puberty every time you started taking the hormones. It's like menopause every time you stop. This is so freaking sadistic. I hate this Bulls---!! My baby is suffering and the doc is on a power trip.
New doctor. Trans-friendly. She met with E and determined that keeping the poor girl off estrogen was only increasing stress and (as any smoker knows) smoking eases stress. So now E is on estrogen again. Hopefully she can quit smoking, but this doctor isn't training to be a Nazi, so E can keep the estrogen.
It's almost like she is allergic to testosterone. She likens the wrong hormones to substituting diesel for unleaded ~ the engine'll run, but it won't be pretty. On estrogen, she smiles. She has so much energy it's almost obnoxious. She grins spontaneously. She sleeps normal amounts. She's chipper. Are you getting the picture? With the right hormones, E is a totally different, wonderful woman.
This transition is a looooong process. And it doesn't appear that the insurance through work will cover anything. Not the hormones (which are not cheap). Not the doctor visits. Not the counseling. Certainly not the surgery. None of it. She can't afford it. Her father & I can't afford it. Somehow we need to figure out a way. Winning the lottery might be the best bet.
The difference between my son on testosterone (naturally occurring) and my daughter on estrogen (pharmaceutically applied) is night & day. As a man she was depressed. Deeply. Clinically. Not the blues. Not a little unhappy. Genuinely depressed. He saw doctors and took pills, and he was still depressed. He concluded that it was his lot in life not to be happy (and didn't tell me that until recently, after starting transition). But once he accepted that the feelings he was a girl were not going away, that he really is a girl, the weight began to lift. When he told his friends, and they accepted her, she was happier. When she told her brother & best friend, and he didn't care one whit, but just loved her, life got better.
The difference is palpable. No one with half a brain would go through this lightly. So why do doctors fight with their patients? Some doctors won't prescribe hormones unless a person proves they're truly miserable by attempting suicide. Ponder that logic awhile. Even the American Psychological Association admits there is debate as to whether transgenderism, or gender dysphoria, is a mental health problem. If we call it a disease, we say there is something intrinsically wrong ~ but, if it's not a disease, insurance doesn't pay for treatment. And the fact is that there is something wrong, if transfolk just wanted to wear different clothes, they wouldn't go to the doctor, they would just cross-dress. These people want help, why do so many doctors refuse to provide it?
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