After 4+ years of living as a woman socially and becoming more and more convinced that my future is firmly female, today I finally took the step of making my doctor's appointment to start me on the path to full transition. I thought it was financially impossible for me, because of my insurance situation. I retired early, and only have Medicaid and VA insurance. But I found out that as of 2016, in Oregon, Medicaid/'Oregon Health Plan'/Trillium will cover HRT, AND top surgery (if a year on HRT doesn't give you breasts), AND bottom surgery! The whole transition is covered, from starting HRT to having vagina. My appointment is in two weeks. If my doctor confirms that the full path is possible financially for me (that the part I have to pay out of pocket, if any, isn't out of reach), and that the necessary medical letters can be drafted along the way to go 100%, then I will start the full process. I can already document years of living publicly and openly as a woman. As I understand it, the other requirements would be for top surgery, I would need of have been 1 year or more on HRT (My doctor will already sign off on me starting HRT), and I need one mental health professional's letter for the top surgery; I would need two such letters for the bottom surgery. The letters just certify that I have seen a mental health professional and that I have sufficient gender dysphoria that the surgeries are medically necessary for improving my mental health. The operations could be done at a facility in Portland, just two hours from my home. With luck, if I have things right, I could be fully female in about a year and a half.
Hello down there Alice! I'll meet you and the White Rabbit at the bottom!
Plan B, if I can't get a good likelihood of being able to afford my part, or if it seems unlikely I can get the necessary gate-keeping steps passed to go all the way, would be to forgo HRT, and pay out of pocket for top surgery, at least. I have no issue with losing my male genital functions, provided I gain reasonably functional female genitals to replace the male parts. But I don't want HRT to make me a eunuch and leave me stranded at that neuter state, unable to afford ever to cross over to full female.
Either way, I am pretty sure that within a year, I'll take the step if changing all my legal documentation to a female gender marker, and changing my first name to Ceera, dropping my middle name and demoting my gender neutral first name to a middle name. I'll keep my birth surname. Driver's license, birth certificate and name change are easy to do in Oregon. And with those in hand, the rest should be reasonable to switch.
