I'm thinking more in practical rather than aesthetic terms.

selfies taken on a camera with an accelerometer sometimes don't register when you move it from one platform to another.

Maybe I should just accept it was a daft idea. Hrm.

4 year waits to see gender specialists in Wales.

Not that I'm enjoying the 2 year waits in the Midlands much more (at least Londoners can go private without having to factor in travel costs and time off work).

Hrm. >.<

Christ, man. How is that not a higher priority for your government? We're talking about years of peoples' lives because the bureaucracy can't get its shit together.

Because if it was up to the government we have right now the NHS wouldn't exist at all.

Would that be such a bad thing?

I mean, I'm not advocating one way or the other, because I grew up with a privatized healthcare system so I don't really know any different. But when I want to see a doctor, I literally just pick my doctor (within some limitations) and make an appointment. It depends on the doctor's availability. I don't just put my name in some government hat and hope someone will get back to me before I die of whatever it is I have. That sounds fucking wretched.

It would be great to have a government-run healthcare system if the government was actually going to run it, but it's obviously not working, so...

No NHS means no free healthcare,you have private but not everyone can afford it.

So

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

Yes

edited 25th Oct '16 2:26:37 PM by Ultimatum

The problem is a matter of priority, not with the system itself. A few years back my Dad busted up his heel pretty bad (As in, fused several bones together bad). He needed several surgeries from a specialist, and we were able to get one scheduled within a couple of months.

Now granted this is Canada, not Wales, and the system is a bit different. But if you have a serious disease or ailment, you are going to get the doctor you need. I don't have hard numbers, but I imagine you won't see many people who die because they couldn't access the person they needed.

Ult, I'm asking a reasonable question, don't be an asshole.

So people with non-life-threatening but permanent problems have to wait literal years for service? That says to me that you have a healthcare system that's broken. Nobody should have to wait more than a year for any kind of medical care. That's horrific.

edited 25th Oct '16 2:38:23 PM by SolipSchism

I am not being an asshole,it's just I'm quite defensive of the NHS,it saved my life for free

Also,its Ulti,never Ult

edited 25th Oct '16 2:35:06 PM by Ultimatum

You are being an asshole when I ask a complicated question and you reply with "free things are awesome so [big text] YES".

I want reasons and opinions, not one-word affirmations in big header text. I want a conversation.

Sorry

Its just that concept of paying for healthcare is an alien concept to me,I don';t think anyone in the UK contemplates the idea of paying for their national healthcare

edited 25th Oct '16 2:44:45 PM by Ultimatum

I'm with Solip on this. If I hadn't gotten on hormones when I did, I would have taken my own life about two years ago. Just because it's not a physical ailment, doesn't mean your life isn't at risk.

By making trans people wait years and years for hormones, they're increasing the suicide risk by an enormous amount.

Again, a few months for a very non life-threatening injury(And that's not including immediate care which was, you know, immediate. It was just a few months for the specialist surgeries). It's a problem with prioritization rather than something inherent. Certainly it's no more broken than certain people being simply unable to get access to medical care, or being saddled with lifelong crippling debt because they're poor.

It's not the most ideal system, I'll grant you that, but between two flawed systems I know which one I'd choose. Ideally, however, there would be a middle ground. Canada still has insurance companies that can help speed things along, there's probably room in any given system for additional services like that.

Hmm. I have a question for the trans peeps here: Do you believe that the pressure to "pass" is born from what society sees in males and females? If that pressure wasn't there, would that perhaps decrease body dysphoria a little?

Apologies if this is offensive in any way, I'm just curious, and it's okay if I don't get any answers.

No clue. All I know is that I'm a woman, and being acknowledged as such makes me feel good. Same goes for having body parts associated with cis women. It's probably both.

I mean more the outer appearance, like, say, your body structure, not necessarily what's in your pants. But I get that kinda feel too.

Certainly. The idea that you need to look or act a certain way to match your gender affects literally everyone- cis, trans, or otherwise.

edited 25th Oct '16 3:11:26 PM by EpicBleye

I like to look adrogynous even when I'm feeling more female, so...

I'm just going to go back to feeling screwed.

Or grumbling about things on clearance being out of stock in my size. I dunno.

As a Brit who's really sick of waiting, my opinion is thus:

• The NHS is wonderful and most people here would be in favour of deporting an American who wanted their system introduced (private health care is actually a lot cheaper here than it would be in the USA; I still can't afford it). The only politicians who (openly) support the American model are fairly far to the right (and are usually only caught speaking openly about it while visiting America).
• The issues with the NHS are those of funding (there has been a massive increase in referrals to the 7 gender clinics in the UK, with no increase in funding from the government), although there also might be a touch of LGBTQ-phobia at play (NHS staff were caught lying to chronically suffering patients about PrEP funding being the reason their own was slashed).
• I strongly suspect the current Health Minister (Jeremy Hunt, pronounced with a C) is cutting funding deliberately, because he has a massive hard on for the American system and would love to privatise the NHS (he wrote a book about it). Since the Tories got a right bollocking the last time they privatised something unnecessarily (the Post Office), they need to sabotage the NHS to justify it.

tl;dr: The system isn't broken, but the people in charge really want to break it.

@Psychedelicate: Gender's a social construct, but being transgender has physical factors at play. It would be easier on us if society didn't relentlessly gender everyone (there's a reason being NB is hasher than being a transman or transwoman), but if you took away the need to socially transition at least some of us would still probably benefit from medical transitions.

Personally, I tend to feel stressed about my body a lot, but most of my stress ATM comes from being misgendered (part of the reason I came out was because I stopped living in the middle of nowhere, and started working a job where I was interacting, and being gendered, constantly).

edited 25th Oct '16 3:21:12 PM by Bisected8

It would leave 90% (maybe higher) of our population withou access to healthcare, so yes it would be bad, without the NHS we have no healthcare beyond a few very high level private things. So that'd be it, no going to the doctor, no accident and emergency, no ambulances, nothing.

I'm not such a dogmatist that I would say one existing system that doesn't work should just be replaced with another one when I don't have all the facts. It seems more like both systems have major flaws. I may think Trump is a troglodyte, but I can at least agree with him when he says that Obamacare needs to be replaced with something better.

On the other hand, I'm not okay with Republicans who just scream that Obamacare needs to be repealed without a plan for something better.