What a great thread! Rikki, join in anytime, please! It is a public forum. I want to hear what you have to say.
I get all the discussion about how we are vilified or marginalized as transgender people, and maybe that’s a part of the problem. Nobody would argue that a person who wants to have an arm amputated because he sees bugs crawling on it which nobody else sees should be referred for a mental health evaluation. Similarly, if a person wanted to have an arm amputated because they identified as a one-armed person, should the surgeon operate?
These types of safeguards already exist, I hope. I s’pose the question is should they be applied to transgender patients.
In terms of who’s gonna pay for it, that’s defined by whether or not a given procedure is “medically necessary”, I would think. Without involving a mental health professional, how could one determine the necessity of treatment for a condition like this?
