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Planned Parenthood has a program called Informed Consent. Therapy is helpful and needed for many to explore, sort through and settle issues but for those that know who they are and what they want and I personally think should have enough life experiences you can bypass the money sucking therapists. You can even do through telehealth and do it from home.
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I’m using Plume, but am thinking about PP going forward
therapy was nonsense for me since the therapists all insisted I go full time asap, and that’s just silly for a giant to consider.
Another therapist told me flat out I should just stop thinking about being trans since I didn’t want the abject, ever present, humiliation of being “out” to define my entire life.
PP is who I used and I can tell you from my own personal experience with them that it was a delight. I did the virtual from home. They were very welcoming, non-judgmental, and professional. They made the process so easy, leaving me feeling relieved and good about starting HRT.
I also had an appointment for something unrelated with my primary care doctor and was very nervous about coming out to him. I was so relieved when he told me that he works with transgender patients.
I am so glad that these two hurdles turned out so well. I know there will be may other hurdles that could possibly turn out with less than desirable results.
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Cassie:
It could be that the people that you have experience with were not experienced in gender issues. After all, you don’t see a dermatologist for an orthopedic problem.
There are a number of reasons why trans people see therapists. One of the more common reasons is to understand their situation well enough so that they decide on a course of action. When dealing with life-changing decisions, there can be significant Approach-Avoidance conflicts. Beyond the process of transition, other things come into play such as dealing with with family issues, employment issues, resources for employers (not every HR department has some idea of how to work with trans people), deciding upon transitioning in place or start with a different employer after transition and other issues. Also, while detransitioning is rare, it does happen. That makes me wonder if they didn’t game the system in some way or worked with a therapist of lesser experience regarding gender issues.
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Planned Parenthood has a program called Informed Consent. Therapy is helpful and needed for many to explore, sort through and settle issues but for those that know who they are and what they want and I personally think should have enough life experiences you can bypass the money sucking therapists. You can even do through telehealth and do it from home.
Well I will let you know how it is in a couple weeks just booked my appointment for the 28th.
Informed consent has become more common in the last 10 years. It’s certainly opened doors for trans folks. Good news that PP has adopted it.
WPATH Standards of Care used to require a psychological evaluation before treatment. The latest edition published in 2012 recognized the informed consent model. But it retained a strong recommendation on the need for evaluation. If you were to go to a clinician that follows WPATH guidelines, a psychological evaluation might still be required.
Personally, I know exactly who I am and where I want to be. I still see a counselor. I know it’s beneficial. Some therapists I’ve seen have been better than others. But every one truly cared and wanted to help. I’d never characterize any of them as “money sucking”.
There are other places that support informed consent, but PP is the big one. I’m not sure what you can get beyond HRT, but for some folks, that’s all it takes to get to a point that they feel like going on.
I’m also not sure if you can dictate what you want for HRT. If you local endo wants you on spiro and E, but you’d prefer progesterone, can you do that? Or decide on dosage levels? The HRT choice is not set in stone, and PP might give more options in that regard.
I think some cosmetic surgeons will do breast augmentation with just informed consent. I suspect more involved procedures such as FFS and GCS would require a therapist’s letter.
My endo is very flexible. She’ll prescribe any hormonal Rx that’s medically safe and effective. She’s good about explaining the pros/cons of various therapies, and suggesting what she feels is the best choice given my progress and circumstances. But she’ll prescribe something I want to try if it isn’t risky. For example, I told her I might want to switch to patches if I progress too fast on injections. She’s okay with that.
So I think it really depends on the doc. A lot of them are pretty rigid and have a “one size fits all” approach to HRT. I’d stay away from them if at all possible. But the more informed docs are more willing to work with their patients to create a plan that’s tailored to their needs.
I hadn’t heard of anyone doing implied consent until I ran across it by accident. They are certainly easy to deal with.
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