HazelnootWhere the fuck do you find doctors willing to write surgery letters???
Full Metal Archaeopteryx@hazelnoot
Look for an LGBTQ+ center in the nearest metropolis
Look for an LGBTQ+ center in the nearest metropolis
@DelilahTech there's not really any big cities near me, unfortunately. I'll search in the nearest one anyway but it's probably too far to travel
Brie (
)@hazelnoot @DelilahTech my local big city LGBT health provider (who I go to anyway) was able to point me towards a second therapist in their system and set up online appointments (I live close enough that I can travel to the office when necessary, but it's definitely inconvenient)
@hazelnoot @DelilahTech for me the letter process looked like:
1. Getting a list of things to cover from my surgeon's office. This was sorta generic and designed to cover common objections from insurance, I can dig it up for you if interested)
2. Getting a therapist who I see regularly to write a letter that covered all of those points. This was very detailed and covered a lot of past history -- I've been seeing her for several years
3. I sent that letter to the LGBT health center therapist and my primary care doctor.
4. Met with the new therapist. We had two sessions, kinda getting to know me and just going over all of the points that were requested for the letter. He also confirmed some of the things from my normal therapists letter at a different angle. After the second session he wrote a shorter letter that still covered the high level stuff
5. Met with my primary care doctor and talked about her letter. It was fairly simple, just covering that I had been on hormones and the like IIRC
6. Sent all of these to my surgeon. They came back and asked for something to be a little more explicit in my main therapists letter at I did that, then everyone was happy. Insurance pushed back a little bit but the surgery team handled all of that
I also remember seeing a resource for help with people getting letters who couldn't afford it or otherwise were struggling, but I don't remember where to find that off the top of my head, I can look if that's something you're interested in
1. Getting a list of things to cover from my surgeon's office. This was sorta generic and designed to cover common objections from insurance, I can dig it up for you if interested)
2. Getting a therapist who I see regularly to write a letter that covered all of those points. This was very detailed and covered a lot of past history -- I've been seeing her for several years
3. I sent that letter to the LGBT health center therapist and my primary care doctor.
4. Met with the new therapist. We had two sessions, kinda getting to know me and just going over all of the points that were requested for the letter. He also confirmed some of the things from my normal therapists letter at a different angle. After the second session he wrote a shorter letter that still covered the high level stuff
5. Met with my primary care doctor and talked about her letter. It was fairly simple, just covering that I had been on hormones and the like IIRC
6. Sent all of these to my surgeon. They came back and asked for something to be a little more explicit in my main therapists letter at I did that, then everyone was happy. Insurance pushed back a little bit but the surgery team handled all of that
I also remember seeing a resource for help with people getting letters who couldn't afford it or otherwise were struggling, but I don't remember where to find that off the top of my head, I can look if that's something you're interested in
Mel@hazelnoot you can ask your surgeon. One of my letters was found through my surgeons office, the other was my regular therapists. I searched psychologists today for therapists that said they specialized in trans or lgbtq care and just asked. A lot of them don’t respond but I found a couple that would have.
Faith, Purple haired feminist 🧋 
@Melezioh @hazelnoot If you have a therapist, they can also be a good place to start. Mine were written by my therapist and by a psychologist who worked at the same practice as my therapist.
@Melezioh @faithisleaping my therapist shut me down immediately with excuses about it being outside her scope of practice 🙄
@hazelnoot @Melezioh Yeah, that's just trash. But also, I think a lot of therapists are under the impression that it needs to come from someone with a psych PhD. It doesn't. Or at least not all of them do. My surgeon used WPATH 7 rules (unless paying out-of-pocket) which required one from a psych PhD and one from a licensed therapist.
But I think a lot of therapists think they can't do it or something. Or, in today's political climate, they're worried about the paper trail. But I think a lot just don't know.
But also, if the shut-down was that fast, that... That doesn't speak well for them as a therapist of a trans person. 😬
@faithisleaping @hazelnoot yea. That’s really messed up the shot you down immediately. My old therapist just had a masters and wrote my top surgery and hysterectomy and one of my meta surgery letters and it was cool. Do need one from a psychologist or psychiatrist though for bottom but one can have a masters.
My current therapist is a psychologist so no issue.
It’s easier if they are familiar with wpath but not necessary.
I do think the environment and legislation is scaring people that aren’t as dedicated to caring for trans people for sure.
@hazelnoot @Melezioh This is also something where telehealth is fine. They just need to talk to you for an hour or two to make a formal diagnosis. So you may be able to go through an online service.
@faithisleaping @hazelnoot yea I did telehealth for all of mine actually because I see my therapists telehealth and the additional letter was someone not in the area for me (near my surgeon).