Quite recently the UK has seen a rise in waiting times for using public health
services in order to transition. Transitioning on the public health
service in the UK is something that is quite common especially if you don't
have the funds to do it privately. The UK has a public health system which is
called the NHS (National Health Service) and it uses tax money to fund medical
costs, so in theory you should be able to go to your GP for free and they should
be able to refer to the gender clinic and they should be able to refer you to
an endocrinologist or specific surgeons for what you're looking for.
Private health care usually just means finding your own doctors or endocrinologist or
surgeons and paying for that yourself. Regardless of whether or not you are
under private or public health care it's important that you do what you can to
stay safe especially as transitioning is an extremely personal thing and can be quite invasive.
It's important to know about the side effects and risks of
everything you do. Regardless of how small something may seem to you it can
have massive effects long term on your health so it's really important to do as
much research as you can to make sure you know what to expect and whether or
not the person you are trusting your life with is doing what they can to make
sure that you stay safe as well. One thing that can be really helpful is to
look and see whether or not your medical professional has a license to do what
they are doing. A lot of people state what their qualifications are on their
website so it can be really good to look out for that when you're doing your
research. Being qualified and having lots of qualifications is a selling point for
medical professionals so if they have them they're most likely to be promoting
them and advertising themselves by having those things so
that you are more likely to trust them anyway. Another thing you can do is
search for reviews. As their websites are likely to be biased because they are
selling a product you will probably want to look for reviews outside of that to
see what other people's experiences are. Some good ways to find reviews is to
either search on google have a look on Facebook groups if you're a part of any.
I'm part of quite a few surgery and trans support groups so a lot of people
will talk about their surgeons or their endocrinologist on there. There are a
lot of blogs out there who will document their transition and some of them are
anonymous so they're more likely to be really honest about bad experiences that
they have. Sometimes it can be hard to be honest when you're not anonymous in case
you're worried about the surgeon or the doctor coming after you or giving you
bad practices for making them look bad. Trans bucket is also a really good
website where a lot of people upload pictures of their surgeries whether it's
top surgery or lower surgery for anyone regardless of their gender. I'll link a bunch of
resources down below so you can have a look and see if any of them come in handy to you.
If you're sexually active it's really important that you
stay safe and use protection. If your body is capable of carrying a child
apparently testosterone is very toxic for foetuses so if you're taking
testosterone and get pregnant it can be really harmful for the baby. This is in
addition to the distress that it might cause you to get pregnant if that's not
something that you want to do. If you do want to get pregnant speak to your
doctor or your endocrinologist about it and they can give you the best advice for that.
I see a lot of people talking about
their doses of testosterone, especially in the beginning of their transition, and
comparing themselves to other people, whether that is by how much they're
getting given or how fast the changes are happening. People will transition
differently depending on their bodies and everyone is different.
Having a low dose of testosterone does not mean that your changes are going to
happen slower. If your dose is too high it can be really dangerous for your
body so please do not go against what your doctor recommends because you want faster changes.
It's recommended that you get your Bloods taken every three
months at the beginning of your transition and then after the first year
it's every six. I get my Bloods taken before every injection of testosterone
that I get, which is every 18 weeks, and that is just to monitor whether or not my
dose is doing its job and if I'm getting any other side effects from anything
that I'm taking. This video is sponsored by let's get checked which is an online
testing service. The service allows you to check your hormone levels, vitamin
levels, and it provides sexual health screening as well.
Everything comes discretely packaged it's really set out so you know exactly
what to do, with a manual. You can either use that app or do it online through
their website and it really lays out what you need to do step-by-step so that
you're not doing anything wrong and you're not going to hurt yourself.
It's not intimidating at all I took a couple of tests and they provide a
little needle contraption where you press it against your finger - there's no
needle in sight - and it draws blood and you fill up a little test tube and
send it away again. Once you've taken your test and you send it back and
a nurse get in contact with you to let you know about your results and
whether or not they can do anything to support you if there is anything you
need to do. In some cases they'll also provide prescriptions for you. They're CLIA
approved and the CAP accredited which is the highest ranking you can have so you
know that they're safe and you know that they know what they're doing. It might
not be for everyone, especially if you've got access to free blood testing
services near you, but if you are someone that struggles with leaving the house or
speaking to doctors that might not be very supportive it is definitely a good
alternative. A lot of people also deal with doctors dead naming them, or
misgendering them, or just asking really invasive questions when they've been
just for a simple checkup so this way you don't need to deal with any of that.
You do it in the safety of your own home and you speak to someone purely about
your levels rather than your history and what you're planning to get done in the
future. You can either get a one-off test or a subscription service which is
probably what I'd recommend if you are monitoring your Bloods when you're
taking testosterone. If you're anything like me and forget everything that
you're supposed to do it would be handy to have someone just post the test to you
when you're due. If you use the code LEO20 when you're making a purchase
you'll get 20% off and I'll leave the link in the description if you are interested.
The last thing I would recommend is to find support. One of the
best places I found support is on Facebook and joining Facebook groups;
whether that is surgery specific groups, or trans-specific groups, or just LGBT
groups. I'm part of a hysterectomy group for trans people and if I had a question
about my night sweats or overheating I'd probably go there to ask questions.
Otherwise if you're just trying to find like-minded people have a search around
and see if there are any forums or groups online or in person that might be
handy to join. If that's not enough I would definitely recommend speaking to a
therapist or a counsellor. Don't cut yourself off from support if
that's something that you think will help you.
Thank you so much to lets get checked for sponsoring me, I really appreciate it.
Especially in these times of YouTube de-monetizing LGBTQ creator content.
Check out the links and the resources in the description if you want to. I've changed my
tier system on patreon so if you want to access all of my perks you can do that
from as little as one dollar a month. Becoming a patron gives you access to
downloadable wallpapers, colouring pages, videos that I've got unlisted on my
channel, podcasts that I do every month, and some blog posts and free art! You
also get 20% off my Etsy Store if you become a patron, so check it out if you
want and that would really help me out as well. Otherwise let me know if there's
any other videos that you want me to create on here and I will be happy to
take those ideas on board. Otherwise, I hope you're doing well! I hope you're
having a great day and a great week and a great month and a great everything and
I will speak to you soon.
Bye! :)