Adventures in Transition

How has it been over eight years since I last posted here? Madness.

Anyway, a relatively quick, reflective update, because I'm a couple of days away from being 12 years post op and 13 years on testosterone, which both seem like obscene periods of time.

So much has changed since I was last here. I spent quite a lot of the intervening eight years in a kind of holding pattern, so it's even more wild to me that my life is in many ways unrecognisable. I've been skimming old posts from here where I was agonising about whether to proceed with stage 2+ of meta, agonising about feeling I could never be in a relationship for the right reasons, etc., etc., and I just want to go back and tell past me that it really does get better. So I guess the next best thing is coming on here and telling anyone who's still actually using tumblr that it gets better.

I never went ahead with further stages of meta, and it's very unlikely I ever will. I just don't feel the need. I did eventually clamber through the red tape to get a hysterectomy last summer, and it was surprisingly liberating. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm done cooking. I still take testosterone, but a relatively low dose, because I'm happy with where I am physically. Having been quite strongly on the binary/transmedicalist side of the fence early in transition, I've relaxed a lot as I've become more secure in myself. I no longer hold those views, and mostly consider myself nonbinary these days. That's something that could be unpacked in more detail, but I won't delve into it right now.

I've been deliberately and voluntarily single for almost all of the past thirteen years. I was nominally in a relationship for my first few months on testosterone, but the relationship had almost entirely broken down by then, and I thought for a very long time that I couldn't inflict myself on other people/that I could never be accepted within the gay community. But about six months ago, a chance encounter with a guy in a pub led me down a rabbithole that led to grindr, and not to put too fine a point on it, but I've finally entered my slut era. Better late than never. The experience has been genuinely revolutionary. Being this far into transition, I'm comfortable and secure in my body in a way that I never imagined could be possible, and have also learned that there are a lot of open-minded gay guys out there.

A little under 2 years 3 months post op. I’m pleased with how things are looking considering I’ve put on 4 stone since surgery - trying to lose it again and get some definition back, though!

Hi!

It shouldn’t be too complicated, no - it might be a bit stressful, though, depending on how well you cope with waiting.

After my second assessment, I was verbally given the go-ahead for surgery. I then had to wait for the referral to be written, and a copy to be sent to me and Mr Yelland. Unfortunately in my case there was some kind of admin foul-up and the referral never got written, so I had to chase them up the week before surgery (I had booked my date in advance of being actually referred, which you’re not allowed to do now) and make all kinds of threats until they wrote the referral and emailed it directly to me and the surgeon.

What should happen, and almost always does (I don’t know of anyone who’s had such a weird situation since the new protocol came in in 2013) is that your clinician confirms in the appointment which surgeon you want, and agrees to refer you and get your other clinician to sign as well. You then wait for a copy of your clinic letter and the referral letter (some clinicians claim they treat surgery referrals as priority, but it will still take at least two weeks usually, and most people end up waiting 6-8 with CHX). When you get your copy, you contact Mr Yelland’s secretary to check they’ve also received their copy, and you can usually book a date for pre-op consultation and surgery there and then if they have. You don’t have to sort out funding or anything yourself: it’s sorted out by the clinic and the surgeons (and top surgery is a core procedure, so there’s no chance of funding being denied). At the moment there’s around a 6 month wait from Mr Yelland receiving your referral to the actual surgery date, but this might change by the time you get referred (and if you can’t take the soonest available date, which is usually what they offer, they’re more than happy to book you in at a later date which is more convenient).