Well . I had a follow up Dr`appointment today, after some boodwork and colon / digit check from a few months ago. ( no problems on that front ). So I took a list of the herbs I have been taking in with me. My blood work is all good, so I plucked up the courage and talked about my feelings and issues, showed him the list. The Dr has taken a copy of the list, so he can look more into the herbs I'm taking. He is also making me an appointment with a Dr who specialises with GD issues.
( sorry if my spelling sucks, I'm on my phone, shaking like heck right now.)
He is making me another appointment in a few months to check over my blood work again.

Well done Janet. Sorry you're shaking so much (kindof sad and happy for you all at once). You've done a good thing! I think I'm ready myself to have my medical records smattered with "transgender". I'm going to talk to my wife about it in the next few days and will probably divulge the "list" and my feelings with a doctor in the near future if she agrees. She's my partner in this so I won't make a move without her.

Well done Janet. Having only gone through similar this week I can completely feel with you. It is a strange feeling. However hopefully you look at it the way I do, Today is officially the first day of your new life. Be proud and enjoy it.

Well . I had a follow up Dr`appointment today, after some boodwork and colon / digit check from a few months ago. ( no problems on that front ). So I took a list of the herbs I have been taking in with me. My blood work is all good, so I plucked up the courage and talked about my feelings and issues, showed him the list. The Dr has taken a copy of the list, so he can look more into the herbs I'm taking. He is also making me an appointment with a Dr who specialises with GD issues.
( sorry if my spelling sucks, I'm on my phone, shaking like heck right now.)
He is making me another appointment in a few months to check over my blood work again.

Janet Dear, further to my PM, I am all excited for you and keep my fingers crossed for a wonderful outcome. Kari has a point saying that your medical records will be smattered with 'transgender' I know mine have and it pleases me

Take care dear friend and good luck.
Hugs
Heather X

I think I'm ready myself to have my medical records smattered with "transgender".

That's one aspect of obtaining my medical care as a transgender at HBHC in Chicago that I like. My medical records will indicate diagnosis code 259.9 'Unspecified Endocrine Disorder', not Gender Identity Disorder, Gender Dysphoria or Transexualism. Health insurance claims will also contain that same billable code, thereby keeping my trans medical care as discrete as possible.

Clara

Janet, I'm so happy for you, and glad that you have a doctor who takes your issues seriously. I wish I was so lucky.

When I was having no luck after six months in getting an appointment with my urologist, I wrote a summary of my various concerns, which included in its third and final paragraph something about my gender issues (primarily to explain why I wasn't looking for T supplementation) and gave it to our nurse practitioner with a request that it be passed on to the urologist. I think she was shocked by it and I've no idea whether it was passed on or even made it into my file. She did agree to requisition a test of my testosterone level, which turned out to be below the lowest level that that lab could detect. She tried to tell me that this was just normal andropause. Shortly thereafter i was offered the alternative of an appointment with the urologist in two months time or an appointment next week with an urologist from another part of the province who locums in the local department, so I opted for the latter and took along a version of my summary. He visibly switched off after reading only the first paragraph at which point he handed it back to me and started setting up a date to attend to my bladder stones, which were the subject of the first paragraph. It was perfectly clear from the conversation that he hadn't read my file. On the appointed day, the locum ran out of his OR time on his first patient, so after lying around on a gurney for three hours I was sent home. The next day there was a call from the original urologist's office saing that that he wishes to 'reassess' me, at an appointment early next month. Whether my original note did in fact reach him, or whether he looked at my file and noticed that in the two PSA tests since I last saw him nearly two years ago my PSA levels had dropped to zero, my abnormally low T level, and the fact that I had passed a very big stone despite my apparent BPH, only time will show. I'm sorry for dumping my frustrations on your thread, but in my defense it was about doctors and gender issues. I'm really glad that your own disclosure seems to have worked out so well.

Thanks for the support girls, it means a lot. The gender specialist appointment is more of finding somebody to talk too, to sound my feelings of to. I have some work to do over the next few weeks, I need to write my feeling down so any questions that come up, I'm going to be able to answer. One question that my Dr asked today,( and the one asked by the last GD Dr many years ago) deep inside, do I feel female? My answer, no ... I feel like me. Its just my body that's wrong.
Another reason for writing stuff down, I need to find the time and courage to sit down with my DW, she really deserves to know.

The way the visit went, the Dr made me feel very much at ease. I did explain I was not looking to transition at this late stage in my life. I had a good long talk, afterwards he told me about a patient he has seen reciently ( in his 70`s ) and our stories are very similar .. ( like most of the girls here ).

Janet...it does help a lot to work with a good gender therapist. It gives you someone to help you sort things out. I say that because most of us with some kind of GID, whether we like it or not, has through the years developed other issues, often as a result of the GID but not always. Sometimes it helps to have the assistance of a professional to help identify and separate this issues so that they are not just one big clump of crap.That does not mean you or anyone does have other issues, just that in many cases there are, developed often in response to how we learned to cope with the anxiety of the GID.

Good luck with yours. I hope everything works out well !

Hugs

Sammie

Thanks for the support girls, it means a lot. The gender specialist appointment is more of finding somebody to talk too, to sound my feelings of to. I have some work to do over the next few weeks, I need to write my feeling down so any questions that come up, I'm going to be able to answer. One question that my Dr asked today,( and the one asked by the last GD Dr many years ago) deep inside, do I feel female? My answer, no ... I feel like me. Its just my body that's wrong.
Another reason for writing stuff down, I need to find the time and courage to sit down with my DW, she really deserves to know.

The way the visit went, the Dr made me feel very much at ease. I did explain I was not looking to transition at this late stage in my life. I had a good long talk, afterwards he told me about a patient he has seen reciently ( in his 70`s ) and our stories are very similar .. ( like most of the girls here ).

You express it all so well - and being myself in my seventies and in the midst of sorting things out with my own DW, I can really relate to what you say. I'd only add that it was extremely helpful to have written it all down - well, most of it - in advance of my own latest attempt to come clean, and what a relief it is now that we are able to discuss it all freely. While the 'woman trapped in a man's body' line has never really resonated with me, I do find my physical body and the societal expectations it produces are not in accord with the me that I am and struggle to understand. I only wish that we could track down a gender therapist in this neck of the woods.

I find that I go through mood swings now that I never used to before HRT. I understand that is normal. When I fall into a low it seems like a therapist would be helpful to talk to. But, I always pull out of the low and return to a 'normal' state of mind, and then can't understand how I could make use of a therapist. I do have the name of a gender therapist that's nearby, and I have thought about paying her a visit. I think I'll wait, though, and see how my involvement with my TG support group works out. I have the sense that all I need right now is an outlet for my social needs as Clara. It gets lonely in the closet.

Clara