received medical intervention are unsatisfied with the time it took to get an appointment, it
demonstrates how the majority of the community is currently being damaged by the medical
system, which is painting a picture that trans people are not deemed important enough for
attentive care. 59
This for ces many trans people to ‘DIY - HRT’, buying hormones off the semi -black
market and dosing themselves, which can be potentially dangerous, and unreliable over the
long term. Furthermore, this can cause the PCT, which allocates funding for NHS services in
the individual’s area, to deny many requests for healthcare once they’ve finally reached the
top of the list, as they can consider buying hormones ‘jumping the queue’, leaving people
stuck between buying hormones to get more immediate medical intervention, but forced
into privately paying for far more expensive surgeries, or waiting years to have the entire
intervention funded for by the NHS. 60 This only leaves the option of complete private or
overseas healthcare, which is often extremely expensive, meaning only the affluent or those
with affluent and supportive families can go this route. However, due to the standard of the
current system in place in the UK, of both waiting lists and the superior surgeries available
abroad, 11 per cent of trans people have gone abroad for medical treatment, or bought HRT
internationally, and a further 17 per cent are considering doing so. 61
Another issue with the NHS system, is that most GICs require the trans person
they’re seeing to live as their transitioned gender between the first appointment they had,
59 Chaka L. Bachmann, Becca Gooch, LGBT in Britain: Trans Report (2018) <https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/lgbt_in_britain_-_trans_report_final.pdf> [Accessed 10/01/2023], p. 16, p. 5 60 Gender Identity Research & Education Society, ‘Transgender wellbeing and healthcare’, Department of Health Booklet , <https://gendergp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/trans-rights.pdf> [Accessed 10/01/2023], p. 34 61 Bachmann, Gooch, p. 19
51
Made with FlippingBook HTML5