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Do cis people in the UK actually think there has ever been a point at which transgender medicine was widely and routinely available on the NHS?

Guys, it never has. When they exist at all, the services are chronically underfunded with waiting lists that literally stretch for decades.

To a first approximation, if you want to medically transition in the UK, you are on your own, unless you want to fight a war of attrition for years.

TERFs like to pretend that you can easily access NHS gender identity services as if it were just a thing people do.

It appears some people have believed their fairy tales. However badly you think trans people are treated by the medical establishment in the UK, I promise you that the reality is worse, and always has been.

“Children on puberty blockers”. Fucking state of it. There are no children on puberty blockers. Not because they’re trans, anyway.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Isabel Ruffell
Isabel Ruffell
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Totally endorse your summary of the lies, but there is a difference between underfunded and an exercise in bloody-mindedness on the one hand and wholly unavailable on the other. Many of us have no choice but to grit our teeth and grind through the system. Which is as bad as you say.
in reply to Isabel Ruffell

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@Isabel Ruffell I transitioned with a lot of people who tried and were unable to access it.

Even at the peak of trans acceptance in the UK, being able to access ANYTHING depended on your postcode at least, and probably a few other things. Some PCTs as we’re basically refused to refer anyone for anything at all.

At which point, you either had the money to go round them, or you found ways to get it 😞

@Isabel Ruffell
in reply to Sarah Brown

Isabel Ruffell
Isabel Ruffell
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yes, my first attempt at transitioning was without any guarantee that the local health authority would pay for anything but hormones (and having to persuade the local shrinks to refer me to a GIC at all). I am now in my ninth year of a second attempt. Now that I am relatively close to finishing, I am in a position to make other arrangements, but that wasn't the case earlier. And it is awful that I feel fortunate to have made it so far, but then I conside whatr other folk face.
This entry was edited (8 months ago)
in reply to Isabel Ruffell

Cyberspice
Cyberspice
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I basically had to self fund treatment to a certain extent but was incredibly lucky, combined with have a great GP, and being in Wales where they didn’t have a GIC at the time, that surgery was referred directly so I was one of those rare people who went to Heywards Heath. My partner did not so I used what I had saved, expecting I would have to pay, to pay for her. I know plenty who did the exceptionally slow NHS grind. I was just lucky with my circumstances.
This entry was edited (8 months ago)
in reply to Sarah Brown

PointlessSpike
PointlessSpike
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I would love to ask a TERF to summarise their achievements in removing healthcare from trans people, and then summarise how easy it is for trans people to get it now. They know, of course they do. It's all doublethink.
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