How do you cope with the dysphoria?🥹

Well maybe😅, I’m planning to go to the Caucasus region and then crossing down through Iran and Iraq to end up in Kuwait.

Does anyone here have any experience traveling in the Middle East? Specifically Iran, Iraq and Kuwait? (Any info on the Caucasus region is also appreciated)

Mainly I’m thinking of general safety, but also traveling with dilators and finding lube for dilation😅

My most natural voice is now generally my fem voice, I have to put in effort to revert back to my old voice😅, but my mom told me to do the same, like use my most “natural” voice. Now that I think about it, in terms of pure biology how my voice sounds is irrelevant as they’d have to physically check my vocal chords anyhow I suppose🤔

I’m not exactly sure, but my main concern is being denied because they assess the risk as being too high for the potential outcome if my voice sounds feminine enough, and it does pass in day-to-day life. I’m in Denmark and the healthcare system is truly awful. They try to do the bare minimum which is why I don’t want to risk being denied if they deem my current voice to be acceptable😭

There are sadly no trans people I know who’ve gotten the surgery. The gender clinics never bring it up as an option, so it’s mostly up to the individual to find out that it’s offered. The trans woman who got the first VFS done here sued the hospital and won which is why it’s now offered, but she’s anonymous and it only happened like two years ago. Finding any information on gender affirming care here in Denmark is truly a nightmarish process😵‍💫

Oh I should probably have mentioned that in the comment😅. VFS stands for voice feminization surgery, I’ll edit my first comment too😅

I need some input! I have an upcoming consultation or rather ‘surgical evaluation’ for VFS (voice feminization surgery) through the public healthcare system and I’m wondering what the best way to go about it would be.

Since it’s an evalutation I’d be inclined to falsely make my voice sound worse/more masculine on purpose since my voice seems to pass in day-to-day life, and I’m not sure if my voice passing is a contraindication for surgery. Like in that case would the surgeon determine the risks of surgery to outweigh the outcome🤔

I’ll definitely try to leverage being a med student as that usually makes doctors more talkative/friendly😅, but all in all I’m not even sure how much the surgeon decides since I did get a referral for the surgery (which I wasn’t even counting on in the first place). So I’m overall in doubt about how to go about the evaluation😵‍💫

But yaa any input is appreciated😊

Denmark and the other Nordic countries are good at cultivating an image of being progressive utopias, which sadly just isn’t true in reality.

The better countries in Europe seem to be Spain, France and Germany, but in general Europe is far behind the blue US states when it comes to gender affirming care.

Ah you’re from Denmark too? My condolences. This country truly is a pile of crap😵‍💫 I’m honestly looking to get out of here as soon as I finish my degree.

What if you’re coming from abroad, so they wouldn’t have any information about previous name/gender changes at all?😅

Hmm that doesn’t sound too good😵‍💫

What if you’re able to circumvent the medical orgs for HRT and already have changed your gender marker?😅

Yaa some countries in the Caribbean offer citizenship by investment, IIRC these include Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda. There’s also countries like Vanuatu, Jordan, Egypt and a few others that offer it. Portugal doesn’t offer direct citizenship, but a ‘golden visa’ by investment.

The countries with shortest residency requirements for citizenship would probably be Argentina and Peru which only require 2 years of residency, although Argentinian citizenship can’t be renounced. Technically, Israeli citizenship is also one of the easier ones to get due to the law of return recognizing converts to Judaism.

Here in Denmark it took about a year and three months from getting a referral to a gender clinic from my GP to actually getting an HRT prescription. This has since increased to around 2+ years IIRC, and this is only if you only have to do the minimum number of appointments (4), 2 with a psychologist and 2 with a doctor. You also risk being outright denied if you have mental health issues and I think that at this point trans kids and youth under 18 have an almost 0% chance of getting HRT. Like if DIY hadn’t been an option I would have offed myself long before getting an official prescription.

Do you know if Texas will continue offering HRT for trans people? I sometimes read that Republicans are looking to ban all HRT and am just wondering if Texas is a safe place to live in regards to getting HRT.

How much harder would you say dating is after college? I’m hoping to move abroad after college, so dating doesn’t seem so feasible right now😅

As Thallo mentioned networking is such an important thing to do. I’ve gotten many opportunities by just showing up to random events and talking to people and showing interest.

Also finding out which study methods work for you helps a whole lot. Flashcards work great for my degree and for me personally, so I focus my time on doing flashcards instead of reading and taking notes. If you have a busy schedule it also helps to plan out when you do what and put it in a calendar so you can keep on top of everything.

I get you. Hearing all about how HRT is magic and etc., but I’ve had the same experience as you. HRT has really done next nothing for me. But yeah, hang in there, I do believe things get better as you get further along in transition

Oh and I definitely dont’t think it’s safe long term. Some of the side effects are bladder cancer, bone density issues and heart failure.

Pio seems to interact with mesenchymal stem cells and a study (though not done on humans) showed transdifferentation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into adipose cells IIRC. Mesenchymal stem cells also act as the prescursor to many other cells such as muscle and cartilage cells, so it’s probably not too good to affect those too much😅

Omg I’ve been looking for that page for some time. I read it a while ago, but couldn’t find it again.

I’ve seen some people mention that the results stayed after stopping pio. I guess it makes sense since the adipose cells go to the places that are in line with a female fat distribution so as long as you stay on HRT I’d assume it to stay.

I’ll definitely report back when after I try it. My plan is to switch back to DIY injections, and then try prog and pio for about 3 months while putting on like 10-20 lbs, but first I need to spoof my blood test so the gender clinic doesn’t know what I’m doing😅