One of the things I have wondered about as some insurance companies started paying for transition related medical costs was how was the wait times going to be for GCS. For those in North America, there are four major surgeons and from there it goes down as far as experience and familiar names goes. So I have thought about how insurance jumping in could increase wait times or as a more unintended consequence, send people to more inexperienced surgeons because they will take the insurance and the person doesn't want to wait.
I decided it was time to plan and make my decision and be committed. After thinking through everything, I decided my final gate will be talking with my HRT provider who is also an OB/Gyn. She would know who does a quality job. She started right off recommending against anyone but the four well known ones. Then she said it was close, but she felt better with Dr Bowers work, so that is who I decided to go with. So off with the application and some impatience when my 3 day delivery sat for a week in Salt Lake City. But today I got called by Robin and have a date of July 27th, 2016. Eighteen months to the day. I knew this was coming as it was one of my exploratory questions.
So it leads me to think that many won't want to wait too long. The other option using insurance (that I am aware of) is that people would have to go to less experienced surgeons and we could see more potentially pop up. Which leaves me wondering if that is a good thing as we have shopped for the best and I wonder if that may be excessive, or if we will see more of us with post-op issues. I am a little concerned as this is very delicate surgery that requires special knowledge. For my part, I am also considered intersex, so that added another layer to the thought process. So I am willing to wait it out (easy enough to say now). I am on the cancellation list, so we can always see if I am lucky.
So what does everyone think about the future of surgery?