This is my first diary, I have been a lurker since 2008 and registered more recently. I decided to make this multi-part diary as a way to help explain why the suicide rate is so high among the transgender community, since these are some of areas I am currently having problems. I can personally attest to this because I have been thinking about suicide constantly for the last 3 weeks and this is merely one of the problems the transgender community faces, including no discriminatory healthcare, no nondiscrimination protections, and rampant trans-phobia among others.
One of the problems is the way health insurance works in this country, where it is not doctors that decide what is medically necessary and the fact that many procedures are considered cosmetic and most are not covered. Here is an example of exclusions in the Ohio State University Policy.
Note On Gender Specific Services for the Transgender Community
Gender-specific services may be medically necessary for transgender persons appropriate to their anatomy. Examples include:
- Breast cancer screening may be medically necessary for female to male trans identified persons who have not undergone a mastectomy;
- Prostate cancer screening may be medically necessary for male to female trans identified persons who have retained their prostate.
OSUHP considers gonadotropin-releasing hormone medically necessary to suppress puberty in trans identified adolescents if they meet World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) criteria (see CPB 501: Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Analogs and Antagonists).
OSUHP considers the following procedures that may be performed as a component of a gender reassignment as cosmetic. Cosmetic procedures/surgeries are specifically excluded for all OSU health plans.
- Abdominoplasty
- Blepharoplasty
- Brow lift
- Calf implants
- Cheek/malar implants
- Chin/nose implants
- Collagen injections
- Construction of a clitoral hood
- Drugs for hair loss or growth
- Forehead lift
- Hair removal
- Hair transplantation
- Lip reduction
- Liposuction
- Mastopexy
- Neck tightening
- Pectoral implants
- Removal of redundant skin
- Rhinoplasty
- Voice therapy/voice lessons
- Esthetic operations on umbilicus
- Breast augmentation (breast implants and pectoral implants)
- Breast lift (mastopexy)
- Buttock lift or augmentation
- Cheek implant (malar implant/augmentation)
- Chin implant (genioplasty, mentoplasty)
- Correction of diastasis recti abdominis
- Correction of inverted nipple
- Ear or body piercing
- Electrolysis or laser hair removal
- Excision of excessive skin of thigh (thigh lift, thighplasty), leg, hip, buttock, arm (arm lift, brachioplasty), forearm or hand, submental fat pad, or other areas
- Mesotherapy (injection of various substances into the tissue beneath the skin to sculpt body contours by lysing subcutaneous fat)
- Neck Tucks
- Removal of frown lines
- Removal of spider angiomata
- Removal of supernumerary nipples (polymastia)
- Salabrasion
- Surgery to correct moon face
- Surgery to correct tuberous breast deformity
- Surgical depigmentation (e.g., laser treatment) of nevus of Ito or Ota
- Treatment with small gel-particle hyaluronic acid (e.g., Restylane) and large gel-particle hyaluronic acid (e.g., Perlane) to improve the skin's contour and/or reduce depressions due to acne, injury, scars, or wrinkles
- Vaginal rejuvenation procedures (clitoral reduction, designer vaginoplasty, hymenoplasty, re-virgination, G-spot amplification, pubic liposuction or lift, reduction of labia minora, labia majora surgery/reshaping, and vaginal tightening)
I’m currently looking for a reason not to give up and stuff like this does not help, hopefully I will still be around to write and publish part 2.