A friend of mine was told she can't have SRS because she has sickle-cell disease that makes the surgery too risky. I wanted to know if anyone is aware of whether her medical team might be full of shit.

I'm not real great at med research. I haven't turned up anything.

@cute_weeds sounds full of shit to me as well, sickle cell would make surgery more risky sure, but far from impossible IMO

@cute_weeds my only experience with this issue before is a friend who was having trouble finding a doctor who would put her on HRT with sickle cell, though she also wasn’t getting enough medical care to begin with

@packetcharmer I realize that estradiol comes with some risk of blood clots, which you have to be extra careful about with sickle cell, but denying HRT on those grounds sounds incredibly callous and dismissive of a doctor. 😞

@cute_weeds I completely agree. So many doctors don’t seem to understand how important transition is to us. One of my partners has a heart condition and a pacemaker and she’s been having trouble getting the doctor to raise her above 2mg/day because they keep citing the heart condition even though her levels aren’t where they should be.

@packetcharmer @cute_weeds sorry to butt in here but if she can switch to injections or transdermal that may be a way to get them to up her levels. oral is the hardest on your system for sure!

@bea @cute_weeds she started with patches before pills. She’s been pushing for injections and then the doctors respond “we don’t know if your insurance covers that”
A. Fucking find out then
B. For a girl with a heart condition I’m sure they can file for an exception
C. I wish I could be there for her at every appointment but she’s 1000 miles away

@packetcharmer "We don't know if that's covered..."

Are THEY doctors? 🤦‍♀️

@cute_weeds @packetcharmer

As the girl in question, I'm going to add that the place I go to, does not test my testosterone levels at all.

Thought Planned Parenthood would be better than this. but like everything else, Fresno is the worst place for anything.

@maritroniuity @cute_weeds so they upped you to 200mg/day without even knowing if you need it? Even though that forces you to to take another pill because that much spiro raises your potassium higher than your heart doctor wants?

@cute_weeds @maritroniuity the most fucked up thing is I’m not a doctor but I can do a better job of managing a HRT regimen than they can.

@packetcharmer @maritroniuity Frankly, a lot of doctors are less informed than their patients about HRT :/

@cute_weeds @packetcharmer @maritroniuity I'm meeting with my endo in a week or two. She's literally written (part of) the book on this stuff.

I could try to remember to float questions past her? Just let me know specifically what to ask, so I can write it down in my notebook.

≈3% chance I won't have time during my appointment, as I've got my own questions & HRT problems rn; but that leaves a ≈97% I WILL have time. ∑:3