There was a story covered by CBC about a transgender man, Chris Higdon, trying to get the government to pay for his double mastectomy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/transgender-man-fights-for-free-breast-removal-1.2420052
There is a lot of misinformation in the article and, in particular, in the comments. Some of the article is just a little tricky to pick through.
This surgery is covered by MCP. What he is asking for is that the doctors here be allowed to asses if he fits the criteria for MCP to cover it. As it is, he has to travel to Toronto to get assessed there, none of the expenses of the travel and stay being covered by MCP.
Besides expense some of the conditions are just silly. You have to be living a year as your preferred gender. I understand that, to a degree. What's so special about 1 year? But it's not real long, and it can single out some people... I guess.
You have to be referred by a doctor. This one is obvious and not even hard, it seems.
It starts to get silly when it comes to who you are allowed to go to to get the surgery done. MCP will not pay for it to be done in a private practice. So that leaves you with looking for a public clinic/hospital to find a plastic surgeon to do SRS.... impossible. So what happens? MCP pays for Tg's to go to other countries and get it done there... wtf?
All he, or any of us are asking for is for the unreasonable parts be made more reasonable. I have heard of CAMH being referred to as gatekeepers from many Tg's and articles and the more I find out, the more that seems so. I find it funny anyone would try to take any kind of responsibility for something that is entirely self diagnosed.
There is no reason this can't all be taken care of here in NL. No one told me I was transgender, I told everyone. If I was told by any doctor I wasn't, it my have led to suicide, or very deep depression but eventually (assuming not suicide) I would have not believed what I was told.
I have no good seque for what I want to say about this next. It's from a combination of reading peoples responses to that article and seeing the lack of reasonable health care for transgender people.
Many people think of this as being the same as elective cosmetic surgery, it is essentially what CAMH is pretending to avoid, paying for people to get cosmetic surgery. I don't see the logic however.
So, someone who was born as a male wants to have breast surgery done. Explain how a cis gender male would get that as cosmetic surgery? Is there really a concern that cis gender people may get these sort of surgeries and end up regretting it?
It's not the same as a woman wanting to have "nicer boobs". Breast development from HRT is different in everyone. Some are lucky and they naturally grow female looking breasts, others not so much. I'm only 4 months in, so I'm not really judging my possible progress, but if I were to end up looking much the same I would stay dysphoric. Right now I have an "A" cup but it's an "A" on top of a male chest and I'll see it that way until the hormones change it, if they don't then I will eventually have to get breast surgery, that is something I'm coming to terms with even.
I hate that my dysphoria is comparable to some "rich bitch" who wants perky tits, according to some people you ask. The glaring ignorance is actually painful. To suggest that I have been living without breasts and a vagina all this time so I can continue, shows just how little you understand my past and how much I was not alive. As I've said before, us Tg's don't WANT to be Tg. It's like this, I want SRS (top and bottom) but it kills me that I want/have to. Every time I think about it, it reminds me of why it's even on my mind. Every time I look in the mirror I have to convince myself of the good changes that I can see just to not get too caught up in how male I look and ruin my entire day... or week.
The majority of us will tell you if we need any of these options. Many trans people are happy with not having surgeries, some don't even go with HRT. Practically the entire medical field says to the trans patient, "we aren't here to tell you you are or are not transgender, only you can know that." Yet I'm required to have someone who knows nothing about me decide if I actually mean it when I say "Yes, cut my penis off."
Is it really that hard for people to wrap their head around? I talk certain now because that's what I believe but I'm still undecided for my own surgeries because of the gravity of the decision. People understand what we are wanting here right? I was born male and I want to surgically remove my penis and add breasts and a vagina, if you can find a cis gender male who is willing to do that, I want to talk to them. If that somehow rings of superficial narcissistic desire I have to ask your reasoning.
Transgender people really have gone through enough already, really people. If my blog hasn't shown you that, or the article linked in this post, look up other stories from other Tg's and see what their lives have been like. I want to save them all, but it's impossible to reach the ones that aren't already out looking for help. Those who are need that break, transitioning is the answer to a life of anguish but it itself is a devastating hurricane. It's unfair to ask us to add extreme monetary expense on top of that. Particularly when everyone involved in a trans-persons life knows how much they need these surgeries (those who need them) and it's only the uninformed public that's keeping those trans-people from getting them.
MCP should cover whatever a doctor deems necessary and that's it. If you have doctors "prescribing" bad procedures/surgeries blame the doctors, don't punish the patients. I'm willing to bet the percentage of "bad choices" would be lower then five.
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