Post #1818808

2025-10-08 08:48 UTC

I just had a free consultation with a surgeon in Barcelona about getting a vaginoplasty operation with him. It was short and pretty surface level, but answered some key questions like "how long should I be in Barcelona" (6 nights in the hospital and then they see me again 48 hours after that), "will I be able to walk up the stairs to get to my apartment afterwards" (yeah no problem), and "how do follow up appointments work" (they try to do everything remote, but there's a chance I'll need to travel back to Barcelona). I don't currently have the 20,000 euros on hand they want for the operation, but I could try to empty an old 401k I have in the US for this. Right now this is the backup plan: if the wait times in the Netherlands become too unbearable or I don't like the surgeons here after talking to them, at least I'll be able to fall back on this.

Replies (1)

@pixiesnoot@transfem.social 2025-10-09 09:03

So I've been referring to the place I'm going as a psychiatric practice, which is kind of true as I'll eventually talk to a psychiatrist, but all of my appointments so far have been with a not-psychiatrist to build up a report on me. This report is now done, and it is 27 pages long. I had another appointment yesterday to go over the summary of the report and write a message together with the person I've been seeing addressed to the psychiatrist, who I will see next and who will hopefully actually approve me for bottom surgery. In the appointment it came up that I naturally talk fast and give short answers, which can give the impression that I don't want to talk about the subjects we're going over, and I should probably not do that with the psychiatrist. I'm now pissed off that I was indirectly told I could be denied healthcare for being insufficiently personable. This whole system is so fucked. I've been at this for 2 years now and I'm still likely more than a year away from surgery in the Netherlands. Talking things over with my therapist, I think I'm going to give myself 6 more months of trying at this. If I don't have a solid timeline with a specific surgeon who I've spoken to and like by then, I'll make an appointment with the Spanish surgeon and give up on the Dutch path. In the meantime, I should start saving more diligently.

Open ##1818807