[Isabelle]

Relax, bryony,

and do some reading. The "medical orthodoxy" over here is a few blocks ahead. The gender team at the hospital of the university of Ghent have given their patients lists of NBE herbs and foods before hormones for at least ten years.

Prof. dr. Peggy Cohen-Kettenis spoke her inaugural oration in February, after having headed the gender team of the medical center of the Free University of Amsterdam for years. The gender team there have always been pioneers, and she is a big deal: among others, she is the president of the committee for the gender section in the DSM-V, to be issued in 2013. The new name is going to be "gender incongruence", which is already a lot better than the stigma of a disorder.

She advocates partial transitions, says that relieving anxiety is one of the central issues, abolished the compulsory Real Life Experience and the obligation to present in the chosen gender, called the Dutch legal requirement of chemical castration "obsolete", and defends the use of experimental treatments before they are recognized as "evidence based". What more could you want?

Moreover, under the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004, you have the right to get a gender recognition certificate on the basis of a diagnosis from another country. With the GRC, the NHS cannot stop you getting treatment in another country, and has to help you get the financial support for it.

Of all the wishes you mentioned in the above post, there isn't one that is not within reach for you today. So get off that soap box and put the energy in the paperwork.

[bryony]

Of all the wishes you mentioned in the above post, there isn't one that is not within reach for to you today. So get off that soap box and put the energy in the paperwork.

That's brilliant news, Isabelle! However, are you seriously suggesting that people from the UK move to the Netherlands for treatment? Even the ones living in the Shetland Isles?

I know the Irish used to come to the UK for abortions in the old days, but at least that was a single visit!

Surely you agree that the wonderful approach you describe should be available here?

It certainly helps that it is available over there. I will definitely do some reading. Very interesting and exciting.

Do you have any URLs to start me off?

Thanks,

B.

PS Oi! What's all that about a soapbox? Still, I can't complain... I did ask people to tell me to shut up...

PPS - why didn't you tell us before? This is amazing!

[Isabelle]

Well bryony,

I did link the UK GRA 2004 before:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=10443&pid=39352#pid39352
There are a few constitutional transgender rights in there that are unique in the world. Be proud. Browse around a little, the bits about foreign diagnosis and treatment are not hard to find.

I just read Prof. Cohen's oration yesterday, even though this document has been around for almost a year, and a TG friend alerted me about the partial transition option in 2007:
http://www.bezinningscentrum.nl/tg/geslachtoffers.htm
It's in Dutch, but the google translator can direct you to the hot spots. I can help with translation of the paragraphs you find most interesting. There were a couple of interviews on that occasion too:
http://www.continuum.nl/index.php?id=221
http://www.carlievantongeren.nl/journali...ggy-cohen/

Study the exact requirements of the GRA: only one psychologist and one specialist in GID need to sign, and I'm sure only the GID specialist needs to be Dutch for your purposes. So there really will not be a lot of travel costs.

Note that both the Endrine Society, and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (formerly Harry Benjamin) have copied her treatment guidelines, and since she presides the DSM-V committee, these guidelines will be valid in large parts of the world in 2013. Just using the year for preparation may be the smartest thing to do.

[julieTG]

WOW

its almost as if were recognised

Good points Bryony and Issabelle,

Makes you almost feel "real" although sfem and I have been saying this in other posts ie

"us"

Julie

[bryony]

Well bryony,

I did link the UK GRA 2004 before:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=10443&pid=39352#pid39352
There are a few constitutional transgender rights in there that are unique in the world. Be proud. Browse around a little, the bits about foreign diagnosis and treatment are not hard to find.

I just read Prof. Cohen's oration yesterday, even though this document has been around for almost a year, and a TG friend alerted me about the partial transition option in 2007:
http://www.bezinningscentrum.nl/tg/geslachtoffers.htm
It's in Dutch, but the google translator can direct you to the hot spots. I can help with translation of the paragraphs you find most interesting. There were a couple of interviews on that occasion too:
http://www.continuum.nl/index.php?id=221
http://www.carlievantongeren.nl/journali...ggy-cohen/

Study the exact requirements of the GRA: only one psychologist and one specialist in GID need to sign, and I'm sure only the GID specialist needs to be Dutch for your purposes. So there really will not be a lot of travel costs.

Note that both the Endrine Society, and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (formerly Harry Benjamin) have copied her treatment guidelines, and since she presides the DSM-V committee, these guidelines will be valid in large parts of the world in 2013. Just using the year for preparation may be the smartest thing to do.

Thanks for all that Isabelle! I shall study with great interest.

I ought to point out that it's very unlikely to happen for me, but I do think it should be available for others like me, with wives/partners, who are younger, and for whom it would be more worthwhile. I hate to think of such people being forced unnecessarily down the full transition route.

One thing on my original "list" that isn't available now, though, is FFS.

That's still something I feel strongly ought to be made available, particularly if the massively more expensive GRS option isn't used. I wouldn't even dream of trying to present as female without serious work on my face. But that's the main point. Look at Andrej Pejic. Would he be popular as a "gender bender" model if he didn't have a feminine face? I seriously doubt it. Yet, with his face, his wide shoulders and narrow hips are not noticed. Even his lack of breasts weren't enough to prevent his naked top half on the front cover of a magazine being banned for sale from Wal-Marts (I think) in the US. The argument being that he looked so much like a woman (even with a male chest) that they couldn't allow the sale of a magazine with a partially naked woman on the front!

B.

[bryony]

WOW

its almost as if were recognised

Good points Bryony and Issabelle,

Makes you almost feel "real" although sfem and I have been saying this in other posts ie

"us"

Julie

Hi Julie,

maybe we should form a society!

B.

[Isabelle]

Hi bryony,

FFS is covered here by some of the insurance companies (health insurance is privatized here), as long as you have a GID diagnosis. They stimulate surgery abroad, which includes Thailand and Brazil.

But people I know who had it done look weird. The scars are too visible, and the eyebrows are too roundly arched. Have patience: a few years on phyto-estrogens will feminize your face by filling it up, especially on your cheek bones.

How massive your forehead and brow bones look depends mainly on how you wear your hair or wig. Note that IGF-1 is what makes your forehead grow. Especially the younger ones around here should stay away from L-arginine and other HGH supplements.

The saddest thing I see on TS faces is the plead skirt: three deep wrinkles straight down from each corner of the mouth. The causes are skin damage from hair removal, lack of support from the beard hairs, and stopping estrogens after surgery.