#rambled a bit off topic but i hope this answers ur query

[vaingod]

Hey, congrats on the bottom surgery, I hope your recovery goes well. I wanted to know, do you have any advice for what to look into about the surgeon? I'd also be interested to hear how long it was from your initial consult to the surgery?

hello thank you so much! depends on where you live for example i needed my gp to write a letter saying i "medically need hysto/bottom surgery" and i also needed a letter from a psychiatrist saying the same thing (find yourself a student in training or someone getting an apprenticeship in psychiatry but even then the cost might be the same since its a flat fee for "second letter allowing you to get a sex change" in ontario, it was around 250 for me to book a single appointment. the benefit of choosing someone in training is to tell them to make your letter fit perfectly - i told mine to put whatever was most likely to get me approved and cover my surgery)

now if youre past the permission letters stage - i just asked for a referral to the most experienced surgeon who has performed the most laparoscopic hysterectomies and i got a few options - i had a choice of going w Womens College Hospital or Mount Sinai which ontario has a sister connection w the one in NY - i chose a surgeon at MS cus that gives me a case file in that hospital and MS in NY performs phalloplasty which will ultimately make it easier for me to transfer/be waitlisted for that.

My surgeon (Dr. Allen) met w me abt a year after my 2nd sex change letter for consult, and then it was abt 6-8 months until i was booked n got my surgery! So once you send that 2nd letter off expect to be getting surgery within 18-20 months. My surgeon even gave me a choice of where i was operated at and i chose WCH since i got my top surgery there and they are the first ones to scrap the bullshit BMI requirements that gave me access to surgery to begin with 💕

i love the workers at WCH so much actually i cant not talk abt them, its mostly women and its a teaching hospital so you get thousands of future surgeons n nurses that are interested in providing better transition care and are learning how to perform these surgeries and what obstacles trans people usually face (dropping the BMI reqs, giving me mid surgery tools that are used in vaginoplasty in WCH cus the nurses noticed everyone w leg blood clot risk can benefit from them, etc) like i dont wanna say go to WCH cus my care team was all very pretty diverse women and im gay but they really do treat you better theyre more personal w their care and i saw 3 trans girls at different stages of bottom surgery recovery being wheeled out into a waiting room together just cus the nurses knew they were friends and wanted them to have daily time together while they stayed for recovery it was really sweet. ive had mostly queer nurses for post op checks there it was realy nice being able to ask how my keloided top surgery scars would heal and my nurse pulling up their shirt and showing me how theirs looks cus it was done by the same surgeon - small things like that made my fear of medical malpractice drop majorly so if youre in ontario i recommend WCH for most transition surgeries!!