For the UK specifically, I transitioned in a lucky era in that I got onto the GRS waiting lists in the mid-00s and got the op in 2008, only a few years before the Tories started breaking everything. So from a GRS POV and in the UK specifically, things were better in the mid-00s.
But if you just want to start transition, if you want to grab a life for yourself to live, it’s a hundred times better now. Self-med; job done. Fuck the NHS.