Spoke with my GP a couple of months ago, and she sent out a referral to a specialist for trans healthcare. Trouble is, I don’t have any contact info for the specialist, and haven’t heard a peep from them, so I have no real timeline as to when I might be able to get on HRT.
Dysphoria is really kicking my ass though. Feels like everything is somewhat unreal, like I’m distant from reality with a bad connection - likely a pervasive form of brain fog. This has built up as I’ve gotten older, and really started to kick hard when I came out to myself as trans. Brain is obsessed with transitioning and it’s making life difficult to focus and do day-to-day tasks.
Depression and anxiety have been well under control for years thanks to medication, and this feels different from both. The only thing that shuts up my dysphoria for a few hours is THC, and that’s not a good coping strategy long-term. I’m not sure what to do.
Been doing vocal training on my own, that’s helped. Not interested in changing the way I dress at the moment. I try to do little affirming things every day, but it’s not a whole substitute for E. If anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated.
i don’t know a whole lot about your situation, but it seems like you don’t feel like you have a pulse on the process. so you might push your gp about it, ask when to check back, what to do if the specialist doesn’t get back to them, etc
for managing your dysphoria otherwise, i’ve always felt like the worst of it tends to come from the lack of belief that you are your true gender. so i would recommend some affirmations and reading feminist literature. things like internalizing that your femininity isn’t defined by “looking like a woman” and similar things
if you feel the wait time gets really bad, you could look into DIYing it. i would recommend taking quite a bit of time to learn and get comfortable with the terms, dosages, testing, etc. it’s a lot of boring, clinical reading. and not something i would recommend as a first step, either. if you do, you’re obviously taking your health into your own hands
Checking in with the GP had crossed my mind too, so it might be worth a shot to at least put some pressure on the situation, or possibly get the contact info I need to follow up with the specialist. There’s nothing preventing my GP from prescribing HRT beyond her own discomfort and ignorance with trans healthcare. But given GPs already prescribe hormones to cis folks, you’d think they’d be able to figure it out. It’s not like we’re a different species. I just want to make sure I have some sort of medical expert in my corner to avoid potential unwanted health complications.