Medical Transition - The Mechanics of it all - Assessments - part 1 -Diagnosis (private sector)
Those of you who have read some of my others posts such as Hello World and Medical Transition - The Mechanics of it all - Services will be aware that I've had, to date, three assessments against the clinical criteria for diagnosing Gender Dysphoria, Two in the private sector and the first of two in the NHS.
My first assessment was in March of 2018, yes that date is correct and it is some 8 or so weeks after I socially transitioned. This assessment was a private Sector one, with Stuart Lorimer, Stuart is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist by higher specialist training ... his substantive role is as a Consultant and Senior Gender medicine Specialist at the Charing Cross GIC.
The assessment took a little over an hour to complete and consisted of a fairly comprehensive chat about my identity, how I came to realise I was trans, my early memories of dysphoria and general health, psychological and psycho-social history ... This assessment is purely a talking based one, there's no physical examination.
Yes there are some hard questions these are not to catch you out or to prove you are or aren't trans but more to see what your thought processes are, and had you thought about all the possibilities ... rather hard to try and catch someone out about gender none conforming decisions when they spent 15 years in a 80 +% female profession and take ballet class ...
I don't know whether i'm easier or harder to assess due to my background and education as a health professional myself, one comment during the assessment , after I'd given a comprehensive answer and explanation to a question was ' well that's messed up my next couple of questions i'd normally ask ' .
I came out of that assessment with a provisional diagnosis and a provisional agreement for 'official bridging' hormones assuming that Dr Seal was happy with my baseline bloods etc ... the written report and a prescription followed a few weeks later ...
Which then takes us to June 2018 and the next assessment.
My first assessment was in March of 2018, yes that date is correct and it is some 8 or so weeks after I socially transitioned. This assessment was a private Sector one, with Stuart Lorimer, Stuart is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist by higher specialist training ... his substantive role is as a Consultant and Senior Gender medicine Specialist at the Charing Cross GIC.
The assessment took a little over an hour to complete and consisted of a fairly comprehensive chat about my identity, how I came to realise I was trans, my early memories of dysphoria and general health, psychological and psycho-social history ... This assessment is purely a talking based one, there's no physical examination.
Yes there are some hard questions these are not to catch you out or to prove you are or aren't trans but more to see what your thought processes are, and had you thought about all the possibilities ... rather hard to try and catch someone out about gender none conforming decisions when they spent 15 years in a 80 +% female profession and take ballet class ...
I don't know whether i'm easier or harder to assess due to my background and education as a health professional myself, one comment during the assessment , after I'd given a comprehensive answer and explanation to a question was ' well that's messed up my next couple of questions i'd normally ask ' .
I came out of that assessment with a provisional diagnosis and a provisional agreement for 'official bridging' hormones assuming that Dr Seal was happy with my baseline bloods etc ... the written report and a prescription followed a few weeks later ...
Which then takes us to June 2018 and the next assessment.
Comments
Post a Comment