Surgery Fundraiser
Donation protected
Hey. I’m Megan, 20 years old and a transgender woman. For more or less my entire life, I’ve severely questioned my identity and gender. I went through a two-year phase of denial where I was off the gender waiting list, due to the fear of “coming out of the closet”, but unfortunately this led to me being placed in a near-forty month waiting list for a gender clinic, as opposed to sixteen months. It has been a strenuous and difficult journey finding self-acceptance, and I’m nowhere near the end of it. But since January 2018, I have officially started moving towards the end goal of being in the body that reflects who I am inside.
In January 2018, I started conforming to the female dress code at my sixth form at the time. Before this, I had just been wearing “female clothing” infrequently when out of the home, in fear that I would not be accepted. It’s been really tricky dealing with some difficult teachers and students during this change. However, I have felt a million times happier and more at ease, in comparison to conforming to a male dress code. My friends have noticed my confidence flourish as Megan in comparison to me before (Charlie), and I have been complimented for having the courage to express myself as who I truly am. With this shift in my life, my mental health has improved to the point where I no longer need to take antidepressants or feel like ending my life on a daily basis. Now it’s less frequent than that. I feel like I could not revert back to acting as if I was a cisgender guy because that’s not who I am. I need to be myself to have a reason to live, a reason to fight for my life and hold self-esteem.
When my letter to my local MP came back saying that there was no viable way to put me in the waiting list at the point I was at before briefly leaving it in a period of denial, I felt devastated. While dressing in a “feminine” way, as me, has been amazing for my self-confidence, there is a long way for me to go yet. I feel very dysphoric in a guy’s body. A body that doesn’t reflect “me”, that has the wrong gendered genital, a body that doesn’t make me feel at ease, self-confident. To be able to continue to get hormone therapy over my lifetime privately rather than to wait over four years to pass through GIC (NHS funded gender identity clinic) would be amazing for me. It would have more of an impact while I’m still young, in the late stages of puberty, and it would make my life that much easier to live. At the moment, I look visibly transgender, rather than feminine, in a dress or a wig. I’ll go into town and get dirty looks; sometimes get verbally abused, threatened, questioned inappropriately, discriminated, harassed, and occasionally get people, often middle aged males, try to attack me for attempting to express myself. It has gone to the point where I’m wary about what “feminine” clothes I wear, in fear that I will get severely discriminated against. A 38-month wait for an initial consultation, and over four years to receive treatments is an unmanageable amount of time to deal with that.
Hence, I wish to go to a private clinic to continue to receive oestrogen from the private clinic while I wait for the NHS waiting list to fund me publicly, and get top surgery (breast augmentation) privately to save myself from six years of dysphoria and self hate. My consultations up to present have costed me £950. My follow up consultations are 300 pounds a year and breast augmentation surgery is over 5500. I’m on an extremely low budget due to being a full time student, meaning that I could not afford to pay for the appointments and travel without saving for a long period of time. Being able to continue to get the hormonal treatment, and receive surgeries in the future by raising these funds would be life-changing for me. It would have a huge impact on my life to be able to slowly produce breast tissue of my own, develop it, look more feminine and feel more feminine. I would be able to use female restrooms with less harassment, and I would feel much safer and comfortable out and about.
If you could contribute towards my campaign or share this post further then that would be amazing, and I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you so much <3
In January 2018, I started conforming to the female dress code at my sixth form at the time. Before this, I had just been wearing “female clothing” infrequently when out of the home, in fear that I would not be accepted. It’s been really tricky dealing with some difficult teachers and students during this change. However, I have felt a million times happier and more at ease, in comparison to conforming to a male dress code. My friends have noticed my confidence flourish as Megan in comparison to me before (Charlie), and I have been complimented for having the courage to express myself as who I truly am. With this shift in my life, my mental health has improved to the point where I no longer need to take antidepressants or feel like ending my life on a daily basis. Now it’s less frequent than that. I feel like I could not revert back to acting as if I was a cisgender guy because that’s not who I am. I need to be myself to have a reason to live, a reason to fight for my life and hold self-esteem.
When my letter to my local MP came back saying that there was no viable way to put me in the waiting list at the point I was at before briefly leaving it in a period of denial, I felt devastated. While dressing in a “feminine” way, as me, has been amazing for my self-confidence, there is a long way for me to go yet. I feel very dysphoric in a guy’s body. A body that doesn’t reflect “me”, that has the wrong gendered genital, a body that doesn’t make me feel at ease, self-confident. To be able to continue to get hormone therapy over my lifetime privately rather than to wait over four years to pass through GIC (NHS funded gender identity clinic) would be amazing for me. It would have more of an impact while I’m still young, in the late stages of puberty, and it would make my life that much easier to live. At the moment, I look visibly transgender, rather than feminine, in a dress or a wig. I’ll go into town and get dirty looks; sometimes get verbally abused, threatened, questioned inappropriately, discriminated, harassed, and occasionally get people, often middle aged males, try to attack me for attempting to express myself. It has gone to the point where I’m wary about what “feminine” clothes I wear, in fear that I will get severely discriminated against. A 38-month wait for an initial consultation, and over four years to receive treatments is an unmanageable amount of time to deal with that.
Hence, I wish to go to a private clinic to continue to receive oestrogen from the private clinic while I wait for the NHS waiting list to fund me publicly, and get top surgery (breast augmentation) privately to save myself from six years of dysphoria and self hate. My consultations up to present have costed me £950. My follow up consultations are 300 pounds a year and breast augmentation surgery is over 5500. I’m on an extremely low budget due to being a full time student, meaning that I could not afford to pay for the appointments and travel without saving for a long period of time. Being able to continue to get the hormonal treatment, and receive surgeries in the future by raising these funds would be life-changing for me. It would have a huge impact on my life to be able to slowly produce breast tissue of my own, develop it, look more feminine and feel more feminine. I would be able to use female restrooms with less harassment, and I would feel much safer and comfortable out and about.
If you could contribute towards my campaign or share this post further then that would be amazing, and I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you so much <3
Organizer
Megan Lovett
Organizer
