16 or 18+ non binary care UK

[u/Broad_Web627]

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I am a non-binary (male) wondering about gender affirming care that I can access now (I am 16) and when I turn 18 as I don't really know what stuff there is for non binary people ik there is puberty blockers but they are banned in the UK I don't know if there are others like it that I could get when I'm 18 but I am all really confused about it and getting little to no help from my general practitioner regarding any of this information

Any help guidance or knowledge would be appreciated

[u/OutsideAGreggs]

The nhs is pretty terrible for gender affirming care in general. For under 18s, they’ll pretty much do nothing. The most they could maybe do is diagnose you with gender dysphoria, but even that requires a long process of being referred to a gender clinic and assessed. The main benefit of that is that the diagnosis is often needed to allow things like hormones or surgery.

At 18, you could get on a waiting list for hormones or surgery, but they can take a very very long time.

If you’re able to go private, you could start hormones now; some places offer micro-dosing, so rather than a full transition, it’s a slower, more subtle change. Some non-binary people prefer that, since it can look more neutral/androgynous than a full transition. But of course, since it’s private healthcare, it’s expensive.

So yeah… there isn’t much available, sadly. I’m also 16 in the UK rn, and the only thing I’m interested in is top surgery, but I’ll have to wait a verrry long time for it. It’s really frustrating.

[u/Jonowi → u/OutsideAGreggs]

But, at least when my son was in the young persons system, his waiting list time was transferred from the young people's service to the adult service. So even though currently support for under 18s is shocking it's worth going through a GP for referral.

[u/OutsideAGreggs → u/Jonowi]

That’s a good point, I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info

[u/queergirl73 → u/Jonowi]

My GP 'lost' my referral twice.

Once, at 15, they said they would start a referral to the children's gender clinic and they just.. didn't do that until we called again after a few months. The actual doctor we saw was also very confused to why his referral hadn't happened and we think it was someone else messing with things.

Then again when I was nearing 18 and instead of doing what they were supposed to to transfer me to the adult list, someone in administration just.. didn't do that either.

So I lost like six months of time. But all of that did convince my parents to go to private and now I'm several months on T and booking a top surgery date which is fun.

[u/Incendas1]

If you are in the UK, go private or DIY. There are a few companies that basically do the whole HRT and diagnosis thing privately for a bit of money. Places like GenderGP. I don't know who's all available I just looked it up rn quickly.

When you go this route, NHS doctors will not want to help you or treat you in regards to HRT, blood tests, etc so you will always be paying privately, just keep that in mind. You'll pay a subscription type fee for your hormones but it's very manageable.

I'm in Czechia and this is also what I have to do, because public treatment is not accessible for nonbinary people, only binary people.

[u/queergirl73]

The NHS gender care waitlist is nearly a decade for an initial appointment. That isn't nearly a decade until you get any gender affirming medical care, that's a decade until you can sit down with a doctor and go "Let's get me diagnosed". So. It's very long.

The other option is private.

I went with GenderPlus. One, they're good for autistic people which I am, but two, they also started the process when I was 17.

I'm unsure if they'll be able to prescribe under 18, but their minimum age for starting the whole therapy side to get a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and just general psychological support, which is needed for any kind of gender affirming care is 16.

For me it took around 6 sessions, then a few months between the last session to be in to see the endocrinologist. That took around a year, just under. Compared to the 8+ NHS pathway, worth it.

However. It is expensive. The diagnosis and to get on testosterone cost us just over three grand, and they charge a 90 pound a month for a few years. But again, my parents and I could afford that and we definitely think it's worth it.

I'd recommend looking at their website. They're good at working with GPs for shared care agreements, so prescriptions are at the NHS price and you do blood tests through the GP for free, offer surgery referral appointments, and I felt that they knew what they were doing.

[u/queergirl73 → u/queergirl73]

Oh! And there's r/transgenderUK. Subreddit specific to, and I can't think of a better way to phrase it, anything gender that isn't cis in the UK.

[u/Imperialcereal6]

So the medical system is a no go pretty much, it could possibly be worth getting on a waitlist through cyp gender services to get referred to a GIC, but that's only really viable for surgery and even then it's only because it'd be prohibitively expensive to do privately. Also a lot of trans/nb folk don't even want surgery, so it's personal preference. In terms of HRT, you can kinda go privately but they'll underdose you to shit and make you want to kill yourself (not even joking, hormone imbalance is a bitch) unless you get lucky. Honestly when you get over the mental block DIY is far and away the best option so if you're interested, maybe do some digging

[u/lovroske]

Seek out DIY