UK GID psychiatrists

[Kate]

I think I have just found my next hurdle; I have discovered how monstrously the UK NHS treats transsexuals. I want to find a specialist private psychiatrist in the UK (my counsellor is experienced, but not a doctor). I have only ever heard one recommendation; Dr. Russel Reid, but he no longer appears to be registered on the GMC web site.

Can anyone suggest someone?

Thank you,

Kate.

[Bianca]

Dr Reid is still practicing - his phone number is *********

xxx Bianca

a fuller list can be found here

http://www.gendertrust.org.uk/index1.htm

[Kate]

Ooo - great!! For some reason he is not listed on the GMC web site. I know there was a conflict last year and there was a threat he might be struct off - I feared that was what had happened.

Thank you Bianca! :)

[Rachel_740]

I think I have just found my next hurdle; I have discovered how monstrously the UK NHS treats transsexuals. I want to find a specialist private psychiatrist in the UK (my counsellor is experienced, but not a doctor). I have only ever heard one recommendation; Dr. Russel Reid, but he no longer appears to be registered on the GMC web site.

Can anyone suggest someone?

Thank you,

Kate.

Kate,

He is still around and working - I've got an appointment with him next Wednesday. I live in the South-West, and I do know of another psychiatrist down here and there is at least one other I've heard about (from memory) in the Leicstershire area somewhere.

Hope this is of help to you.

Anne

[Caitlyn]

Im about to see one there...woohoo me...I hope he's ok.

[BeckyCath]

Dr Denesh Khoosal is the Dr in Leicester who does private work, he's also the boss doc at Leicester GIC, where i have my appt early Jan...

The NHS only treat badly if you curl up and let them treat you badly. I have a fab GP who is on my side, and the 2 NHS psychiatrists i have seen both diagnosed me with GID, were really nice, caring and compasionate.

The problem i have come up against is the Director of Public Health at my local PCT, but a complaint throught ICAS to the CEO soon got my funding.

You have to fight, know exactly what you want, and not be affraid to push and push hard to get it. The NHS can not deny you, or refuse you treatment, They can put lots of hurdles in your way, but the end will justify the means anytime!

It's not a race, why pay when you can get it free on the NHS? It just takes a bit more effort, and lots of patience

Good luck no matter what way you go.

Rebecca

[Rachel_740]

The NHS only treat badly if you curl up and let them treat you badly. I have a fab GP who is on my side, and the 2 NHS psychiatrists i have seen both diagnosed me with GID, were really nice, caring and compasionate.

The problem i have come up against is the Director of Public Health at my local PCT, but a complaint throught ICAS to the CEO soon got my funding.

You have to fight, know exactly what you want, and not be affraid to push and push hard to get it. The NHS can not deny you, or refuse you treatment, They can put lots of hurdles in your way, but the end will justify the means anytime!

That's exactly why I'm going private. I've always been a long way from being a fighter - I'm the person who just says OK and leaves it at that (and gets walked all over, I know, but that's me).


It's not a race, why pay when you can get it free on the NHS?

My answer to this (and don't for one minute think I'm preaching, I'm just airing my morals) is that about 4/5 years ago my father had a quad heart bypass on the NHS. I'd hate to think that me insisting on having my op on the NHS prevented him (or anyone else) from having that op repeated. As you say though, it's not a race.

Anne

[BeckyCath]

My answer to this (and don't for one minute think I'm preaching, I'm just airing my morals) is that about 4/5 years ago my father had a quad heart bypass on the NHS. I'd hate to think that me insisting on having my op on the NHS prevented him (or anyone else) from having that op repeated. As you say though, it's not a race.

Hi Anne...

A heart by pass costs about £25 grand when the surgery, the drugs, the ITU bed and the post op care is considered...

A hip replacement costs roughly the same, the implant costs about £1400 alone...

SRS costs about £17,000, and in the long term proves cheap when the saving in long term antidepressants and endless councelling is also considered, and the fact that most post op girls go onto live fruitful and succesful lives!

Anne, as much as you're entitled to air your morals, i am too, and i just can't see why the NHS will give people like George Best a new kidney/liver knowing damn well he would drink again and kill the one some died to give him... Selfish self centred *******... And why do they keep people alive who will have heart attacks and end up brain damaged, if they ever recover?

I never asked to have Gender Identity Dysphoria, so why should i pay for my treatment, when i have worked and paid my taxes all my life? The NHS is free for all, and that should not have any conditions attached...

The NHS should learn to be more efficient with their money, and not waste it on no hope cases...

Sorry to be harsh, but why pay for it when in all honesty, you've already paid for it many times over in your taxes...

Good luck, I'm sure Russel Reid will be more than happy to releive you of your money, and agree with everyting you say to keep you coming back, how would you feel if yopu paid him the £180 he wants for a 1st appt, and he said you're not TS?

just my opinion, and to air some more of my morals, St Russel of Reid id little more than a money grubbing charlatan.

Rebecca

[Rachel_740]

SRS costs about £17,000, and in the long term proves cheap when the saving in long term antidepressants and endless councelling is also considered, and the fact that most post op girls go onto live fruitful and succesful lives!

Anne, as much as you're entitled to air your morals, i am too, and i just can't see why the NHS will give people like George Best a new kidney/liver knowing damn well he would drink again and kill the one some died to give him... Selfish self centred *******... And why do they keep people alive who will have heart attacks and end up brain damaged, if they ever recover?

I agree with everthing you say here.


Good luck, I'm sure Russel Reid will be more than happy to releive you of your money, and agree with everyting you say to keep you coming back, how would you feel if yopu paid him the £180 he wants for a 1st appt, and he said you're not TS?

just my opinion, and to air some more of my morals, St Russel of Reid id little more than a money grubbing charlatan.

However, I don't agree with what your suggesting about Russell Reid here, as it's more than his job and license is worth - and with the likelyhood of being sued on top f that these day ....... I have heard of him turning girls down for surgery. I haven't heard of the NHS turning anyone down - just making it very difficult (but that's obviously not to say it hasn't happened).

Anne

[Kate]

It's not a race, why pay when you can get it free on the NHS? It just takes a bit more effort, and lots of patience

I am very short on patience. I am only now discovering that I have been living a lie, and now that I see I can fix it I want every last second of that new life - especially while I can be a young woman!

I am not going to hang about while some unsympathetic doctors make me go through a long and humiliating period as neither one thing nor the other. I am very fortunate to be in a position to be able to afford private care, and I would want to ensure I got the very best surgeons regardless. Even if it financially crippled me I would probably still get the very best - what is more important than the body you are spending the rest of your life in?

Kate.

[Caitlyn]

[QUOTE=BeckyCath]Dr Denesh Khoosal is the Dr in Leicester who does private work, he's also the boss doc at Leicester GIC, where i have my appt early Jan...

Yep, thats the one. I have just been referred to Dr Khoosal. The way I see it....why spend money on srs and maybe a 3-6 month boost on the waiting list, when you can spend the money saved on things like FFS (which I need more). Each to their own but I would rather give the hormones more chance to move the fat around (hormones dont care how rich you are).

[Kate]

I am well aware that there are time-limiting factors other than SRS - primarily hormones and electrolysis. It is those I wish to start as soon as possible, but I am not so foolish as to try and self-administer hormones!!

Therefore, since I want to start my transition as soon as possible, the NHS route presents unacceptable delays.


Good luck, I'm sure Russel Reid will be more than happy to releive you of your money, and agree with everyting you say to keep you coming back, how would you feel if yopu paid him the £180 he wants for a 1st appt, and he said you're not TS?

That is in part why I am going to see him - to make sure I am not simply going mad. As for his credentialls, lots of people (including ones I trust greatly) recommend him highly. I am also capable of forming my own opion of a medical professional, but from what I gather he seems like an excellent first port-of-call.

As for my apparent haste, it will probably take me at least 18 months to transition. If I am *very* lucky I will complete it before my 30th birthday (in about 15 months). No offense intended, but unlike some of you I have the chance to be a young woman. I already desperately regret having missed my girlhood, and I want to make sure I get every last day I can.

Kate.

[BeckyCath]

OK, you lot want to waste your money, and of course the NHS isn't the best health service in the world, that's why we have BUPA, which i have too, but of course, my BUPA doesn't cover me for GID treatment, because that's a mental illness isn't it?

Before all of you jump down my throat, please listen to my history, and try to understand where i'm coming from...

Beleive you me, the NHS do turn people down, but of course, the NHS also lets through those who know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it, why do you think that CHX only prescribe low doses of oestrogen in the early stages, as alot of people who think they are TS aren't, and the hormones are a valid and useful diagnostic tool...

When i was 19, i was totally certain i was TS, and ended up in psychiatric care, in a secure psychiatric unit for acute admissions, I spent 6 weeks in that hospital, in the 6 weeks i was there, i endured being watched by male nurses whilst i showered, i wasnt allowed to sleep with the light off for the first 4 weeks, i was regularly locked in the seclusion room (padded cell without the padding!), put on anti psychotic drugs whilst the doctors tried to pin a label on my condition. I tried numerous escape attempts, and was in the end diagnosed with a paranoid persoanlity disorder... purely cos i felt everyone was looking at me and going to harm me... I had a junior psychiatrist who took it on himself, his ginger goatee and ponytail and his nasty knitware to persuade me that i wasn't transsexual, that it was all in my mind, and i was really a fat depressed teenage homosexual, telling me i would never get past the doctors at Charing Cross... guess who was in charge at CHX back then?
So in the end, to end the abuses i was enduring, imagine having to ask to use a razor for a shave? Imagine having ECT, and other therapies to "cure" me of wanting to be a woman...

I've known I should have been born female since i was 12, i've known i was different since i was 7... so i resent being told that i don't know my own mind...

So, after my escapades in psychiatric treatment, and deciding that in order to get out of the nightmare, i'd just agree with the junior doctor and say i'm a gay TV, so i could get off the drugs, get some dignity back and try to rebuild my already shattered life...

So off i went, and became "NORMAL", I am not really a success, i am too cautious, i am not a risk taker, and just do things to stay in the back ground, which is probably why my engineering company folded after 3 years... i just want to be an ordinary "mum" to my kids, and if my luck comes along, soon i can be a stay at home mum too... bliss...

I'm 33, so i'm only 3 years older than you Katie, but having been taken seriously by my current GP, who let me read all my mental health records for the period i was institutionalised, and then sending me to see a consultant psychiatrist for "assesment" and for him to see me presenting as a boy, and within 40 minutes to declare me GID, then to be sent, by my PCT, to another psychiatrist in Oxford, who saw me presenting as a girl, and for him to keep chatting to me for 2 hours, and then when i asked his opinion, for him to say "well Rebecca I find you profoundly Gender Identity Dysphoric, and will definately want to refer you for specialised treatment for your condition", but i already knew that, they both also said they found no underlying mental health disorder, apart from GID induced depression... I got a referal to Leicester...

I am quite confident that i will probably get better care than anything a private practioner can offer, the only reason i have BUPA is that the hospitals are nicer, and when i need a new grommet fitted, i can have it done to my schedule, not the schedule of the NHS.

I have a life, i like my life, and the 18 months i've waited whilst the system and i have been sussing each other out, has allowed me to discover things about myself, to accept myself as a woman, and to plan, research, understand and work out my schedule, and i will do this my way, not the way of the transvestite forums, guided by the transsexual forums, but in the end, in my own way, for my own reasons, for my own benefit... No NHS dr is going to push me around... I know what hormones i want, why i want them, I have already sourced NHS speech therapy, I am loosing weight, i am getting my confidence up, i am full time at weekends, i only present as a boy when i have to work, but even then, i am an "enigma"

So, yes, Go see Russel Reid, pay money to him, but why? He's more than likely going to get struck off by the GMC, as they have a witch hunt out for him, and he's of that age where he could enjoy a massively prosperous retirement, He's not the only Dr who treats privately, but why has he got the reputation? Ask yourself why has he got the reputation?

so, in a nutshell, this is me... I am young, i will be whole and complete before I'm 37, and that's young...

I'm just playing the system to my advantage...

There is an old saying, go in haste, repent at leisure...

It's a not a real life test, it's a real life experience, and of course, there are an awful lot who get a few months into the RLE, and give up, as it's just a bit too hard to do woman on a daily basis...

Rebecca

[Kate]

Dear Becky,

It sounds like you have had a horrendous time over the last decade and a half, and I really feel for you. *hugs*

Despite that, I am not sure why you feel a need to villify Russel Reid. Personally, I am waiting to see what he is like to make up my own mind, but a recommendation from a trusted friend gives me a good idea of what to expect.

Also, if you are happy to be frugal and take things slowly then I commend you. I am probably being flighty and foolish, but I just feel so desperate at the moment - desperate to start taking the first few steps of my real life.

Regardless, I wish you only the very best of luck. I wish I had your patience and resolve.

Kate.

[Rachel_740]

Rebecca,

I hear what you're saying and I sympathise with what you had to endure when younger.

As you say the GMC seems to have a witch hunt on Russell Reid. That does not reflect on his practices though and I (among many hundreds of others) have as much confidence in him as ANY other psychiatrist.

However, going back to the funding, I am still of the opinion that I shouldn't be taking up NHS recourses when they can be put to use keeping somebody (maybe me at a later date - who knows) alive and well, so I am still going to carry on the private route. It's not a time issue, it's not a quility of care issue. The fight on the NHS system is an issue with me (as I said somewhere else on the forum recently, I'm not a fighter), but I have the money and I to spend it by improving my life.

Anne

[BeckyCath]

I know i am being totally irational about Russel Reid, but i guess long held phobias are hard to get rid of.

If i had the money, I'd be queue jumping too, no hesitation, but i aint got no money, but at the same time, I'm not going to be meesed about. I'm not really a fighter, I just seem to know how to find out to manipulate the system to my own ends, and there is a difference. I haven't actually had to fight much, it just seems like that reading what i wrote, but i used ICAS to do the fighting for me, all i had to do was meet an ICAS advocate, have a chat about my complaint, and then spend a further 2 hrs chatting about transsexualism with the advocate, as she was fascinated, so is her replacement, and i've had a long discussion with her also about GID! It's a case of knowing where to go and how to do it i guess!

Anne, i admire you your stance on saving the NHS resources, but they would do better if they got rid of the 50% of staff that peform absolutely no clinical function, the NHS is being chocked by it's own beauracratic inertia, and beleive you me, the NHS will have far far more off me during my lifetime in tax and NI than i have out for my GID treatment

Good luck Anne & Katie

Rebecca

[Maria D]

Hi Becky and all.

I went to see Dr. Reid earlier this year, and found him very helpful. Whilst I do agree that the NHS should be there when we need it, that doesn't change the fact that it's not always. I have a very good GP who was happy to help, but my PCT isn't so helpful. In response to extra funding this year, they were pleased to announce that they will be treating 17 people a year at the GIC. If I was put on the list when I asked, I'd have been about 212th. So yes indeed the NHS will help me, in twelve years or so.
So, I considered the choices thus:

1: Wait and use the NHS (I've paid my NI after all).
The trouble was, I'd denied my transgendered nature all my life, considering it wrong. The fact I sought help at all was because I just couldn't take it any more and I was on a downward slope. I've waited my whole life, and I could wait a little longer for happiness, but twelve years? Before even being seen, let alone being offered any treatment? I'd be 40 by then, or more precisely, dead.

2: Go private.
In a sense I couldn't afford it, since I'd run up debts on my downward slope, but what's a little more on top if it can give me what I've always needed: help?
Dr. Reid's name is well known and he was recommended, but more importantly I could have an appointment within a month. I went not because I wanted a yes man or to be given any treatment without question, but because I needed help to find out who I was and how to stay alive. This is something the NHS couldn't give me, so that's why I went private.
The end result is that I'm taking hormones safely with the GP taking regular blood tests, have a supportive fiancée, and am preparing to go full time shortly. If I'd walked the other path, I'd have about 11 years left to wait.
Of course, I'm sure if I banged the drum and really pushed then I might get seen quicker, but surely that would mean I'd just push someone else further down the queue? Also, I had no fight left, taking on the might of the NHS seemed rather too much. (Having since had dealings with regard to my fiancée being ill, I know JUST how bad the NHS really is in almost every way.)

I sympathise terribly with your past treatment Becky, was it the NHS that treated you? Such barbarism will hopefully be consigned to history one day. I hope you don't mind me presuming but you seem happier now than before, after taking your path, and I think that's great. But please don't criticise others if they walk a different way; I'm happy after making my choices, and that's all anyone can ask for isn't it?

Take care
Maria.

[BeckyCath]

Hi Maria, I have nothing against anyone paying for treatment, and given the cash, so would I, but PCT's are on quite astoundingly dodgy ground with all the stuff they spout about waiting lists for waiting lists. The government are trying to make it illegal for patients to wait more than 18 weeks for an appt with a qualified specialist in the field of the patients illness... They won't disqualify any illness, and GID is an illness, so eventualy the PCT's will have to come in line, and stop this stupid rationing system that they seem to love. My PCT say they will only fund 2 operations a year, but they know damn well that once a patient is placed on the surgical waiting lists by a GIC, there is very little they can do, because the patient can then complain that they are being made to wait for what is just "surgery", and that's what it is, GCS is just "surgery" and any NHS waiting list manager would have to acknowledge that, and then, the waiting is over. The PCT's know they can not refuse treatment, but since the medical community have very very little knowledge and understanding of our condition, that's where the problem lies, GP's who have no idea of the NHS protocol for procurment of specialist treatment, PCT managers who are managing the individual funding of patients with GID who shouldn't be doing the job, the woman who has made it very very difficult for me, and has been playing me off against my GP and my psychiatrist,is the Director of Public Health, and a DPH should not be funding GID treatment protocols, a DPH does not aprove funding for oncology, why does a DPH aprove funding for GID? If you actually get down to business, look at how the systme works, and can play it to your benefit, then the NHS is very very good. I am hoping to persuade my PCT that i should have my surgery in America, mainly because Tim Terry is a butcher, Charing Cross Gender Ward is an MRSA ridden hell hole, and the costs in America as opposed to over here are a fair bit cheaper price for price, If they send old codgers to france for knee replacements, why can't i go to America for my surgery? Would you want a dr doing the surgery who has a 65% failure record?

So, I'm using my waiting time to learn how the system works, so i can play the system and win.

What i'm saying is "research research research and preparedness" will always overcome...

Rebecca