It's not much better in the US and there isn't a unified "gender clinic" to coordinate things. And travel for surgery and recovery is expensive, especially when most insurance doesn't pay for that and things are so spread out in the US, so most have no option or if near a major city are stuck with the one or two overbooked options close enough to them that they can get a ride to.

I had to travel to another major city to even get on a waiting list for my first surgery since in the major city where I live, the one clinic that has a surgeon was totally unresponsive on how long their waiting list was after taking my doctor's referral.

And I had to pay around $4,000 for a month at an AirBnB plus flights, food, and necessities we couldn't fit in the now strict 50lb weight limits on luggage for me and a care person. I couldn't bring a carry-on since I wouldn't be able to carry it on the way home and you can't put the heavier liquids in there anyway like soaps, shampoos, hair products, lotions, etc. And paid several thousand out of pocket to cover deductibles and coinsurance despite having the most expensive health plan my company offers which costs about $400 every other week from each paycheck despite the fact I work for said insurance company. And that was only one surgery.

Next surgery is a 1 year wait for a consult and no clue how many years before surgery and another one is at least a 3 year wait for consult and at least 4 year wait for surgery after the consult. I can't afford to travel again for those. Had to take out a home equity loan for the first one. And I still have to pay for the mental heath visits for the gatekeeping WPATH letters each time both for the consult and again for the surgery since they each expire after a year. I really wish there was someone to help coordinate it all. For example, if I end up with the waiting lists ending too close to each other I'll have to go back on the beginning of the list assuming the surgeon is still scheduling new surgeries because you can't get too many too close to each other and they're totally separate offices.

And traveling internationally is too dangerous right now with my passport being forced to be my birth gender and my genitals not matching for the x-ray, so unless things improve it is likely I'll be too old to get most of the surgeries by the time I get through the lists. I'm already starting later in life due to lack of care. Plus I need other small surgeries for some unrelated issues which I can't find providers for in my insurance network taking new patients and can't afford to schedule too far out, just in case I get to the top of the gender care surgery wait lists.

Yeah, software patents in the US especially, have become a way for companies to either kill competition, or make buying up ridiculous patents and suing for infringement their primary source of income.

Primary issue is the patent office has few officers that are technical enough to understand the overlap of the specific industry and software. So, they tend to just allow anything, especially from larger companies that they're told to assume have the expertise if they don't since their load is too large to have time to learn new stuff and truly research if something is obvious or not.

Better get rid of all the Christian content, black people kissing white people, move back to not allowing married characters to sit on the same bed unless their feet are firmly on the floor, and anything else that doesn't represent all people. Heck, we probably need to hide bodies and faces of every actor so you can't see their faces or body shapes. I mean men don't want to see women on TV and vice versa since they can't relate, right?

Then that should be the questions asked, not some arbitrary "sex" question with only some of the possible answers as options.

It should be apparent, especially now, that those things never were never enough to determine these things anyway. There are tons of types of intersex people which are not an insignificant percentage of the population.

So, there are some things that loosely follow AGAB for the majority of people, but the assumptions made based on that, end up causing more trouble for those whose bodies don't conform. And that's not a small portion of the population. Basically between intersex people and trans people who have had HRT and/or surgery are at very, very conservative estimates, around 3%, but since there's no finding and it's now unsafe to track even in the US and UK and other western countries, it's likely much higher in reality. These people are poorly served by the current system of AGAB only.

For me, many of my lab tests show abnormal because it should ask what is my body's primary sex hormone or ask to select for the specific test, what range is normal for my body if they want to get it really right. And honestly, body weight is more impactful on a lot of things anyway, why aren't we asking that of every person (rhetorical question, but essentially asking if you were born with or the doctors modified your body at birth to have something that looked closer to a penis than a vulva, should be just as uncouth)? Also, insurance won't pay for gynecology/urology kind of stuff or mammograms or prostate cancer screenings even if you have the right body parts to need it, if your AGAB is wrong without a long and drawn out process each and every time to prove you have the right part. Heck it's not even good for marketing if you have the wrong one listed because it has to be your AGAB rather than the gender you present as and thus the high profit products you're most likely to use.

So it really has a low usefulness compared to asking more relevant questions whether for medical or commercial reasons.

Seems like the issue is going to be structural integrity over time. You're either going to need to reinforce it by running straps of strong fabric from the belt line to the places where they are attached, or use really thick material for the pants and just reinforce the actual spots where it's sewn in. Likely using straps will make it look nicer so that stuff in pockets isn't making them get stretched weird, but will be more expensive and making it comfortable will mean adding another layer of material over the straps on the inside. Either way, seems like these would be kind of expensive to make.

If it's POSIX compliant then it will work on all versions of Linux/Unix. Otherwise it depends on specific implementations that have branched for decades.

I was just chatting with some people about how I've discovered how bad habit and conditioning affect neurotypical people. This was in the context of visual, audio, and other gender cues that cause NT people to misgender trans and non binary people. I had recently discovered how the gender conditioning can make it difficult for NT people to change when things are automatic in their brains. They aren't used to having to concentrate to remember words like i do, so they don't have that easy place to inject conscious decisions.

So yeah, there are some things we are superior at and if NT people would just accommodate our disadvantages, our advantages could benefit them. But the current political atmosphere is isolationist and individualism, so they want everything to benefit them since they can't stand to collaborate to get the benefits we offer.

Again, adverse effects doesn't mean death, the fact that the description you posed has that last sentence is the alarmist thing and only applies to certain drugs, of course.

The difference in absorption rates between oral and rectal administration can be as much as double or triple or more in some cases. For example I remember reading a study from the 70s or 80s on methylprednisolone. The absorption rate orally was about 90%, but rectally was only around 35% likely due to bacteria in the rectum decomposing the drug before it could make it into the blood.

So, over the long term the difference in dose could have a significant impact on health. Getting 3 times more or less of any drug, even something relatively safe, will likely mean "adverse effects". With estradiol this could mean greatly increased side effects for overdose like nipple soreness or mood swings, or greatly decreased effect for underdose meaning testosterone takes over again and hair loss and body hair growth restart. These are "adverse effects", but are not likely to be deadly, but still considered overdose/underdose.

Overdose doesn't mean die, it means getting a larger dose in your blood than the labeled dosage. Over a long period of time dosing too high, there may be side effects. Sorry if I used medical terminology, but I work in healthcare so it's common terminology there. I sometimes forget that the media has warped the meaning of some of these terms.

I'm getting mine in 2 weeks, but getting PPT so no scrotal tissue is used as labia will be made from the shaft since that's not needed for the vagina, but I expect similar experience with the clit at first from what I've read.

But for me, I've actually had what I've been calling phantom vagina/vulva most of my life. Basically, the feeling that the peritoneum and area being the scrotum should have an opening and the shaft should be a clit. So I'm hopeful that putting things the way my brain thinks they're supposed to be will make it easier for me at least.

But everything I've read has told me your experience is normal and will change over time. But it will likely take years and even then relapses of it may come up here and there. For now, take comfort in what has improved And I've heard you should spend time looking at and exploring touching yourself with a nonsexual intent to help train your brain on what's actually there. I was reading to use your dilating time for that at the very least as well as time after masturbating when things are especially sensitive but you're relaxed.

As i mentioned, DIY with doctor's monitoring if you can find a doctor with sliding scale fees and pay cash. Or if you don't mind your parents seeing the trans diagnosis, then DIY with monitoring by your doctor but find an inexpensive/sliding scale lab for the blood tests if you want to hide that. Or if your insurance will allow privacy for adult dependents, just be careful if you need an auth for the type of HRT you get, and don't use mail order pharmacies. But if you choose DIY and get them from supplement companies, be sure to research the manufacturer as there are lots of fakes, heavy metal contamination, etc., in the supplement industry.

Yeah totally get that. Just want to give other options you should look into first before risking fully DIY.