#doctor fenway

[allmyandroids]

Nigel Fenway [Brent Spiner] - Threshold Ep. 7 "The Order"

[gadawg-404]

A TRUE HERO.

“The date was August 8, 1982. The Red Sox were playing an afternoon game at Boston’s Fenway Park. Suddenly a screaming foul ball whizzed past the first base dugout and Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice heard the unmistakable sound of ball striking flesh. Looking around the corner of the dugout into the stands Rice saw 4 year old Jonathan Keane bleeding profusely from his head. Realizing in a split second that it would take several minutes for park EMT’s to get to the scene, the future Hall of Famer sprang into action. Rice leaped over the railing into the stands, cradled the young fan into his arms and carried the boy into the dugout where he received immediate attention from the team’s medical staff. Within just a few minutes Jonathan was rushed to the hospital where doctors credited Rice with saving the boys life. Jim Rice played the rest of the game in a blood stained uniform, a true badge of courage.

(Written by D.J. McCoy)”

[bignaz8]

August 8, 1982: A line drive foul ball hits a four-year-old boy in the head at Fenway Park. Jim Rice, realizing in a flash that it would take EMTs too long to arrive and cut through the crowd, sprang from the dugout and scooped up the boy. He laid the boy gently on the dugout floor, where the Red Sox medical team began to treat him.

When the boy arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later, doctors said, without a doubt, that Jim's prompt actions saved the boy's life. Jim returned to the game in a blood-stained uniform.

After visiting the boy in the hospital and realizing the family was of modest means, Jim Rice stopped by the business office and instructed that the bill be sent to him. This is what a sports hero looks like!

[theglitterdome]

Red Sox player Jim Rice and 4 year-old Jonathan Keane - August 7, 1982 at Fenway Park, Boston

On this day in 1982, Red Sox infielder Dave Stapleton, stepped into the batter’s box and fouled a pitch sharply to the right, the hard-hit ball cracked young Jonathan Keane in the head, cutting open his left temple and fracturing his skull. Fearing it would take too long for paramedics to reach the boy, left-fielder Jim Rice leaped into the stands and picked up the unconscious child. Cradling Jonathan, Rice ran into the clubhouse, where he brought him to Red Sox team doctor Arthur Pappas in the trainer’s room. Pappas claimed he had never seen so much blood at Fenway. “Time is very much a factor once you have that kind of a head injury and the subsequent swelling of the brain. That’s why it’s so important to get him to care so it can be dealt with quickly" said Pappas. Keane was rushed to Boston Children's Hospital where doctors noted that Rice’s quick actions were instrumental in the boy's survival.

[she-is-ovarit]

Detransitioner news

I have been thinking about detransitioners lately and wanted to compile articles I have been seeing. This will be a longer post and reblogged for part II as I hope to copy and paste brief portions of the articles under each headline.

Law firm for detransitioners opens in Dallas

In all of the controversy around gender transition, there is one group that is persistently marginalized by both the right and left. They are known as detransitioners — people who decide that they want to return to their birth gender, often after receiving years of interventional care, including surgery, to treat their gender dysphoria. Now, the nation’s first law firm focused solely on representing these patients — many of whom feel abused by a medical system that encouraged their treatment — has opened its doors in Dallas. It could forever change how hospitals and doctors approach what’s known as gender-affirming care.

Archive link

Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, the largest provider of transgender medicine in New England and one of the leading institutions of its kind in the United States, was named a defendant in a lawsuit filed last month. The plaintiff, a gay man who goes by the alias Shape Shifter, argues that by approving him for hormones and surgeries, Fenway Health subjected him to “gay conversion” practices, in violation of his civil rights. Carlan v. Fenway Community Health Center is the first lawsuit in the United States to argue that “gender-affirming care” can be a form of anti-gay discrimination. The case underscores an important clinical reality: gender dysphoria has multiple developmental pathways, and many who experience it will turn out to be gay. Even the Endocrine Society concedes that many of the youth who outgrow their dysphoria by adolescence later identify as gay or bisexual. Decades of research confirm as much. Gender clinicians in the U.K. used to have a “dark joke . . . that there would be no gay people left at the rate [the Gender Identity Development Service] was going,” former BBC journalist Hannah Barnes reported. Rather than help young gay people to accept their bodies and their sexuality, what if “gender-affirming” clinicians are putting them on a pathway to irreversible harm?

Due partly to Shape’s lifelong difficulty in accepting himself as gay, his lawyers are not taking the usual approach to detransition litigation. Rather than state a straightforward claim of medical malpractice or fraud, they allege that Fenway Health has violated Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in health care. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that “discrimination because of . . . sex” includes discrimination based on homosexuality. Citing this and other precedents, Shape’s lawyers argue that federal law affords distinct protections to gay men and lesbians—upon which clinics that operate with a transgender bias are trampling. Shape grew up in a Muslim country in Eastern Europe that he describes in an interview as “very traditional” and “homophobic.” His parents disapproved of his effeminate demeanor and interests as a child. They wouldn’t let him play with dolls, and his mother, he says, made him do stretches so that he would grow taller and appear more masculine. At 11, Shape had his first of several sexual encounters with older men. “I was definitely groomed,” he recounts. Shape proceeded to develop a pattern of risky sexual behavior, according to his legal complaint. He told his medical team at Fenway Health about his childhood sexual experiences, calling them “consensual.” The Fenway providers never challenged him on this interpretation, he alleges. They never suggested that he might have experienced sexual trauma or, say, explored how these events might have shaped his feelings of dissociation. (The irony is that Fenway Health describes its model of care as “trauma-informed.”)

Archive link

Ontario detransitioner who had breasts and womb removed sues doctors

An Ontario detransitioning woman who had her breasts and womb removed to change her gender to male is suing medical and health practitioners for failing to consider other treatments during her mental health crisis before ushering her on an irreversible journey she regrets. Michelle Zacchigna, 34, of Orillia, Ont., north of Toronto, names eight health professionals, including doctors, psychologists, a psychotherapist and a counsellor in a lawsuit filed in Ottawa. None of the defendants, who work or worked at various clinics and institutions in southern Ontario, responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit prior to deadline. Four of the defendants have filed notices of intent to defend against the suit in Ontario Superior Court, but no statements of defense have been filed. None of the claims have been tested in court. Zacchigna said she faces an uphill battle in her lawsuit. “I’ve been under the impression that all medical malpractice suits are challenging. Doctors win the majority of cases in Canada,” she told National Post. “It’s very much a David vs. Goliath undertaking.” In her statement of claim filed in court in November, Zacchigna says she had difficulty forming relationships with classmates in elementary school and was often bullied. By the time she was 11, she engaged in self-harming behaviour, including cutting her arm with a knife. This continued into early adulthood. When she was 20, she tried to kill herself and she was referred by her family doctor for psychotherapy, where she was treated for social anxiety and clinical depression. She remained unhappy and depressed, and her mental health decline led to her dropping out of university, according to her claim. About a year into therapy, she engaged with an online community around gender nonconformity. “Michelle came to believe that her biological sex of female did not match her true gender identity of male,” her claim says. “She further came to believe that this mismatch between her biological sex and gender identity was causing her feelings of depression, self-harming behaviour and unease in her body, a mental health condition commonly known as gender dysphoria,” her claim states. This was the first time Zacchigna felt she was born in the wrong body, and she had not previously identified as male, her claim says. “However, as a result of what she read on the internet, she became convinced that she was a transgender man, and that once she embraced this new identity, her depression would subside.” Zacchigna started attending a support group in Toronto for people considering gender transition. A counsellor there told her of opportunities to proceed through a medical transition, her claim says. Zacchigna was invited to apply for medical intervention in 2010. The counsellor wrote a recommendation letter outlining a medical history that didn’t fully match her real past, the claim says. The counsellor didn’t recommend any alternatives, or seek confirmation of Zacchigna’s own diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Her regular therapist also wrote a recommendation for transition treatment, saying Zacchigna was an “ideal candidate for hormone therapy,” even though the therapist had no previous transgender clients, according to the claim.

Part II incoming.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"Hi, my name is Shape. I started identifying as transgender at 22 while still in college. Before that, I was just a feminine gay man.

Being asked about my pronouns led me to research transgender ideology, and pretty quickly I got convinced that I was [a] transgender woman.

I was able to get hormones relatively easily through Fenway Health and was only on them for a year before receiving facial feminization and breast augmentation surgeries at 23.

Taking hormones actually worsened my mental health, but therapists thought that it was because I was stuck in the wrong body. They cleared me for sex-reassignment surgery by diagnosing me with Gender Identity Disorder.

Immediately after SRS, I was super-excited to start a new life. I was happy for a few months while recovering, however soon I realized that my new part wasn't what doctors promised me.

My neo vagina started constricting despite rigorous dilation, which resulted in me developing vaginal stenosis. This left me unable to have penetrative sex, which adversely impacted my mental health. I also lost my sex drive, my motivation to achieve anything, and became brain-fogged and lethargic.

I had multiple unsuccessful revisions attempting to get a few inches of neo vaginal tunnel. I even had colon vaginoplasty. The last revision was at the University of Miami by Dr. Christopher Sargara in 2018, and it left me with a colorectal fistula.

I've been all over the country trying to seek help but I have received none.

Earlier this year after hitting rock bottom with my depression, I reached out to a new therapist. The therapist helped me realize that I have Complex PTSD from a traumatic childhood, and also pointed out that I have body dysmorphia, OCD, borderline personality and bipolar disorders. I also realized I had internalized homophobia.

I realize now that medical transition was sold to me as a hardware fix for software issues.

A few months ago I started detransitioning by taking testosterone, however it is traumatic to be on testosterone without having functional genitals. Moreover, my back hurts every day due to osteoporosis and scoliosis that I developed post-SRS.

I'm now dependent on synthetic hormones for life. I traded my perfectly healthy genitals for an artificial 1-inch tunnel that is sexually non-functional.

I realize that I'm never getting back a functional penis, and full detransition is not really possible in my case. I feel stuck in a surgically created body.

I believe nobody under 18 should be allowed to medically transition. Sex-reassignment surgery should only be allowed in very rare cases after full psych evaluations. Patients should be made aware that what they're really getting is cosmetic surgery, and it's a genital approximation surgery that does not change biological sex.

Thank you."

==

What do you do when you're a detransitioner who can't detransition?

Meet Shape Shifter. His body has an open wound that it keeps trying to close over, because it's not supposed to be there.

This isn't "healthcare," it's cosmetic surgery. It's no more "healthcare" than getting a new haircut is a cure for depression.

[deadnburied13]

On this day in 1982, a line drive foul ball hits a four year old boy in the head at Fenway. The now Hall of Famer, Jim Rice, realizing that it would take EMTs too long to arrive and cut through the crowd, sprang from the dugout and scooped up the boy.

He laid the boy gently on the dugout floor, where the Red Sox medical team began to treat him.

When the boy arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later, doctors said, without a doubt that Jim's prompt actions saved the boy's life.

Jim returned to the game in a blood-stained uniform.

After visiting the boy in the hospital, he stopped by the business office and instructed that the bill be sent to him.

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[strictlyfavorites]

A TRUE HERO.

“The date was August 8, 1982. The Red Sox were playing an afternoon game at Boston’s Fenway Park. Suddenly a screaming foul ball whizzed past the first base dugout and Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice heard the unmistakable sound of ball striking flesh. Looking around the corner of the dugout into the stands Rice saw 4 year old Jonathan Keane bleeding profusely from his head. Realizing in a split second that it would take several minutes for park EMT’s to get to the scene, the future Hall of Famer sprang into action. Rice leaped over the railing into the stands, cradled the young fan into his arms and carried the boy into the dugout where he received immediate attention from the team’s medical staff. Within just a few minutes Jonathan was rushed to the hospital where doctors credited Rice with saving the boys life. Jim Rice played the rest of the game in a blood stained uniform, a true badge of courage.

[burntundertones]

August 8, 1982: A line drive foul ball hits a 4-year-old boy in the head at Fenway Park. Jim Rice, realizing in a flash that it would take EMTs too long to arrive & cut through the crowd, sprang from the dugout & scooped up the boy. He laid the boy gently on the dugout floor, where the Red Sox medical team began to treat him.

When the boy arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later, doctors said, without a doubt, that Jim's prompt actions saved the boy's life. Jim returned to the game in a bloodstained uniform.

After visiting the boy in the hospital & realizing the family was of modest means, Jim Rice stopped by the business office and instructed that the bill be sent to him.

[allmyandroids]

oh boi, what a silly

[earlgreytea68]

I had this lovely dream and I woke up and texted myself the rough outline of it so I would remember and I'm going to write it down here now before I forget it.

In this dream, instead of leaving Fenway right away to sit in useless traffic, I stuck around aimlessly, and I was scrolling through my phone when Patrick stump sought me out, which isn't even the strangest part of this dream, because what he said to me was "Tell your dad he's like this close" and he put his fingers really close together "to being a professional drummer." And I was like ????? And it turned out my father had played the drums at the Fenway show??????

Now my father didn't even go to the Fenway show but I dream logic I accepted that this had happened and was like "omg!!!!" And apparently there was a Drumming Emergency and they were like "does anybody know how to play the drums?" Like looking for a doctor on a plane, and my father volunteered. Again, in dream logic, I did not question why I had missed all of this lol

My father does IRL play the drums and in the dream I told Patrick his real story, about how he'd always wanted to play the drums but he had a rough childhood that wasn't the kind of childhood where there was money or even attention for a child's dreams and so he didn't take up the drums until he was in his 40s, and imagine having something you wanted to do but not being able to do it until your life was half over. And Patrick listened so hard and so kindly with all his attention on me, it was really striking, I remember this because even in the dream I was like "he doesn't care about this!!!!" In my head as I was rambling at him but he was so, so kind and focused on me and we had a whole conversation about being lucky to do the things we love to donate early ages (I did not tell him my thing is writing because even in the dream I was thinking, "well, clearly can't get into what I write so just don't mention that" lol)

Then Pete came looking for Patrick and he told them how my dad had been the drummer and I was like "look, I am amazed, I could not tell the difference, I really thought it was Andy, not like during the Tosh shows when I could tell it was a different drummer" and I actually added an aside "I watched the Tosh shows via stream" like they needed the clarification and Patrick was like "no, I totally agree" and Pete was like "I didn't think Tosh sounded that different from Andy" and Patrick gave him a look and was like "Pete" and Pete kind of shrugged and then they were off.

And I was texting my father the night things Patrick had said about him and then my father showed up and I was like "OMG WHAT EVEN IS GOING ON TELL ME EVERYTHING" and he was like "I knew you would be like this sigh" lol and I was like "you don't even know fall out boy songs!! How could you play the drums to them!!!" And he was like "yeah, Patrick was worried about that too" like oh, yeah, now he's on first-name basis with Patrick Stump I was just agog at him in this dream and then he was like "but he's pretty casual about the setlist so if there was any song I didn't want to play he said we could switch it" and then I was like "was Fenway really loud?? We sounded like we were really loud, what did it sound like on stage?"

And then he sighed and was like "I knew you would be like this so I made this recording" and handed me his phone (least realistic part of this dream, my father has no idea how to make a recording on his phone). I think the end of this recording was meant to be the concert from the drummers perspective but the beginning was my father's audition? And he played some original piece, like, just fooling around on the drums. And when he was done Patrick made some musical remarks (I wish I could remember what my brain made up here but I can't) and then Pete said "I would call that piece To the Point. Because of the point at the end of the drumsticks. And also the point of the piece. It got to the point" and I was like "this is the most Pete Wentz thing I have ever heard" and on the recording Patrick was like "yes okay moving along" lololol because Patrick just affably deals with Pete's tangents all the time.

And then I said to my friend (who was suddenly there) mournfully in the dream, "Patrick is just like how I write him and that is so, so bad. It would have been better if he were nothing like that" and my friend was like "why? You didn't want him to be nice?" And I was like "this means people like Patrick exist in the world and actually that is deeply annoying" and then, with this bit of wisdom, I woke up.

And then immediately texted the highlights to myself.

And then went back to sleep lol

Sometimes my brain gifts me with really narrative dreams like this where people just turn out to be really nice and kind and people you just would like to be real life friends with and I think my brain intends these dreams as a treat for me AND THEY ARE but also there's always this disconcerting moment when you wake up and...you're not friends with Patrick stump lol

[scribble-dee-vee]

Heyyy I just got here and am already obsessed with LL and the boys. I've come for the ask game. If you have the time/energy I'd like answers for both >:]

🎈❗️🚨

Cecelia sounds like such a badass I'll be back to bother you about her later :>

Omg hiii!! Ty for the ask (and reblogs – I see u). I'm glad u r fond of the lads. Cecelia is in fact a badass and I do in fact love her and I would in fact talk about her at any time. Ur Western/cowboy/eldritch WIP sounds like it goes EXTREMELY hard, and I will for sure be bugging you about it as well 🫡

Prompt list is over here!

Responses are predictably long, so I stuck em underneath a cut. Also, tagged content warnings.

🎈 (balloon) - What does your character do at parties? Are they a wallflower or a party animal? Do they go with friends or alone?

I answered this one for Dale over here! TL;DR parties are a constant in Dale's life. He generally views them as a vector for political/social gain rather than something to attend for funsies. Charles emphatically DOES NOT like parties, because A.) he doesn't like people, B.) he's some flavor of neurodivergent, and B.) he had a TERRIBLE childhood with few chances to practice conventional social interaction. At the beginning of Lost Letters, Jamie ropes him into attending a party at the Rosehip Club for tactical reasons. He meets Dale, who drags him along to subsequent events. He complains about this for the entire book, but what is he supposed to do? Not spend every single waking moment with his bf??

❗️(exclamation point) - What was the scariest moment of your character’s life? Does it still affect them?

OH BOY, do these lads have scary memories!! Several come up within Lost Letters, so these are slightly spoilery. Oh, well. When Dale was thirteen, a highwayman (or hired assassin?) nearly murdered him and Rosalind. They were on their way to boarding school. He stopped their carriage and put a knife to Rosalind's throat. One of her guardsmen rescued them by shooting the attacker, but things got pretty dicey for a minute. In moments of panic, Dale can still feel the splatters of blood and brain matter on his face. Eugh. Charles has many traumatic memories. He was abducted into the cyborg force as a child; he still fears Imperial doctors and the mysterious warren of caves beneath the palace. There's one particular instance that stands out in his mind, but I can't reveal the whole story here – it's highly plot-relevant, hehe. It resulted in his bionic eye and the metal chunk of his skull.

🚨 (siren) - What’s your character’s relationship with the law? Have they ever been arrested? What for? What are their opinions on law enforcement?

Dale is a hot, wealthy Goldenheart and lineal descendant of the Queen. He can get away with murder. He doesn't concern himself very much with rules, but he does try to keep a clean record – anything else would threaten his claim to the throne. For the most part, Dale benefits greatly from the oppressive, corrupt legal system of his world. He sits at the top of the City's social order. (Asterisk. Dale's queerness, and his illegitimate Leadenheart sister, certainly complicate his social positionality. But that's a can of worms we don't have time to open now.) Charles lowkey IS the law – he's a junior member of the Imperial military. He's a cyborg and a Goldenheart, which means that he's pretty high up in their Order. However, he's still an apprentice until the end of Lost Letters, which means he doesn't have a formal rank. He attends palace schooling/training and sometimes conducts one-off missions to kill mages. He's an excellent tracker. Charles' mentor is General Dmitrius Fenway, the guy who leads the entire dang force, so that's a big deal! It definitely means that Charles will graduate to a prestigious rank, and probably means that he'll be a prominent leader someday. However, Charles is not Dmitrius' favorite apprentice – that would be Charles' sister, Cecelia. This whole fucked-up little family dynamic is complicated. Charles is a sensitive person, and despite the lifelong brainwashing, he feels a little iffy about the whole "forced military service" thing. When he leaves to attend college, with the Queen's personal permission, these feelings only grow; he sees the world outside the Imperial echo chamber, and it allows him to recognize the deplorable implications. Cecelia, on the other hand, is SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC about serving the force. She has never left, and she craves validation for her skill. However, she's also a girl; women soldiers are less common and less respected in this pseudo-Victorian dystopia. (I should probably clarify that Lost Letters deals HEAVILY with oppressive gender roles, misogyny, and fascist ideology. It's not intended to be a light read or a conventional romance.)

Ty for reading the HIGH wall of text, hehe. Love sharing ✨ fucked up character lore ✨

[eggplantlilly]

sometimes we are lucky enough to realize when we get caught in a moment that will crystallize like amber into a golden moment, and tonight was just so great.

we’ve been in Boston this weekend because I’m taking my stepmother to the fancy doctor (read, specialist) and so we try to come early and make it fun. it was already great, dinner on Saturday, Boston museum of fine arts this morning, when one of my old friends from grad school got tickets to see the foo fighters and invited me.

and it was perfection. it was the sunset over Fenway while the New England summer was its best with a breeze making it feel slightly cool. it was catching up with an old friend and singing at the top of our lungs. and it was the bass and drums vibrating into my chest so much I felt like I was purring.

it was beautiful and the foo fighters are entertainers and dave grohl effortlessly seemed to be having the time of his life and, best of all, wanted us to come along with him.

[the-tzimisce]

i want to say that i believe the doctors at fenway health in 2012-13 were doing their best at a job that probably was stressful and didn't pay well (i have no idea but that's the standard profile for that kind of job) and also that their best fucked me over unbelievably

like my specific situation is outside the bounds of proximate causation for prescribing hormones ineffectually but also if they hadn't laughed at me when i asked about gel there's a decent chance i would have just been trans this entire time

[lboogie1906]

Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was a jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and actor. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years.

He was known for inserting musical quotes into his solos, with sources as diverse as “Happy Birthday” and well-known melodies from the operas of Wagner. One of his major influences was Lester Young. He was an early influence on John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Rollins and Coltrane then influenced Gordon’s playing as he explored hard bop and modal.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in Round Midnight and he won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, for the soundtrack album The Other Side of Round Midnight. He had a cameo role in Awakenings. His album Go was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

He was born in Los Angeles. His father, Dr. Frank Gordon, was one of the first African American doctors in Los Angeles. His mother, Gwendolyn Baker, was the daughter of Captain Edward Lee Baker, Jr. one of the five African American Medal of Honor recipients in the Spanish–American War.

He was a member of Lionel Hampton’s band, playing in a saxophone section alongside Illinois Jacquet and Marshal Royal. He was featured in the Fletcher Henderson band, followed by the Louis Armstrong band, before joining Billy Eckstine.

He was married to Fenway Gordon. He had six children and seven grandchildren. When he lived in Denmark, he became friends with the family of the future Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and became Lars’s godfather. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"tHaT's NoT hApPeNiNg!!"

By the time I was 17 years old, testosterone was being injected into my anorexic body. This was after a single appointment with a WPATH-certified therapist, who asked me a few questions and told me that I was a boy. These vague questions included things like, "do you dislike your period?" "do you get along better with boys?"

-

I went to a Planned Parenthood a few weeks after my 18th birthday. None of the clinicians were interested in what was behind my desperation to change my body. They told me that because I seemed so sure, they would prescribe the hormones that day.

-

I had seeked assistance through my local LGBT center, and on my first appointment, I was immediately affirmed as a transgender woman. When I asked her why was I affirmed so quickly, she said she did not want to gatekeep me. And she had my letter to transition right away.

-

So, when I was 19, I went to an informed consent clinic, which basically means you just walk in and you say you're trans, and you want cross-sex hormones, testosterone. And they gave me a free prescription of testosterone that day. Even though I told them all these list of, you know, being suicidal, all this. They just gave me a very high dose of testosterone. Pretty much had no checks and balances. They just gave me the prescription and that's it.

-

I went to Fenway Health in Boston, was able to get on hormones rather quickly. Ended up getting facial feminization surgery and shortly after that I got approved for sex-reassignment surgery. There was absolutely no push back by therapists. They completely ignored comorbidities I had. I had internalized homophobia. They completely didn't even push back at all, they affirmed me, and gave me the letters for the surgeries.

-

When I turned 18, I learned that I could obtain testosterone through informed consent, and in my experience talking to them, they kind of downplayed the risks. They really sort of focused more on the aesthetic changes that I will go through.

-

I went to Planned Parenthood like the week later. I basically walked in, I said, "hi, I think I'm trans." They said, "great, we're gonna diagnose you with gender dysphoria and here's your prescription for testosterone, you can get it the very next day." And I said, "great." I didn't actually realize in my head what a huge fucking red flag this was.

-

I started off by getting a prescription for testosterone, and to do that I called up Planned Parenthood, because I'd heard they provided gender affirming services. I thought I would have to go through some kind of process to get the testosterone, but instead what happened is I talked on the phone for 30 minutes with a doctor I'd never met in person, and I got prescribed testosterone over the phone.

==

The things that never happen keep happening.

I mean, what else are we supposed to expect to happen in a model that demands unquestioning "affirming" of mental disturbance, with any kind of safeguarding or pushback deemed "hate"?

I'm just an amateur at this, but shouldn't someone "seeming so sure," itself be a red flag? Someone who has no qualms, no concerns, no reservations probably doesn't understand or appreciate what they're getting themselves into.

BTW, testosterone is a steroid; anabolic steroids are synthetic versions. So, yeah, you're going to feel pretty good while jacked up on steroids. But it's artificial, doesn't address your issues, and is biologically damaging. For some reason, we warn people about anabolic steroids as dangerous, yet testosterone is handed out like candy.