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.
So the big question I’d have to ask here is which country you’re in, because the waiting times for the specialists in trans healthcare to contact you varies a lot depending on the country. The coping strategies you’ll need if the wait is a couple of months are going to be very different to the ones needed for a wait of 5+ years.
Canada. In an area where there are no informed consent clinics too.
I imagine someone from Canada can give you a better idea of how long waiting times are there - I’m not in Canada myself so I can help you there.
If it turns out to be a longer wait, of more than a few months, I’d highly recommend looking into some talking therapy. Most trans people will say you need a specialist in trans therapy in order to benefit from it, but I disagree. A therapist doesn’t need to be an expert in trans stuff to be capable of empathy - you don’t need someone to affirm the fact that you’re trans, because you know who you are. Find someone who will listen to you and help you explore your emotions in your own way, wherever they take you, which may well branch out into other aspects of your life. When I was waiting to get HRT (which turned out to be about 6 months for me), having a therapist to talk to - just talk to, not to prescribe medication or try to “fix” me - was hugely helpful when it came to coping with the fact that all I could do was wait.
Knowing the current state of our healthcare (the conservative party in charge of our province have been underfunding and passively sabotaging it for years in favour of replacing it with private practices), the wait times for many therapists are going to be similar if not longer. But I’ll keep it in mind. My family is supportive, and my cousin is a transwoman, so maybe I can talk with her.