Transfem

250 minutes of screening over several months seems excessive to me. For me I only spent like a few minutes describing my gender dysphoria before I got a diagnosis. Thing is, we spend a lot of time ourselves thinking about it, I personally spent 4 years thinking about it before I made an appointment, so screening for more than like 15 minutes is pretty redundant. Many trans people see it as offensive to suggest that we are going through a phase because of the pain we've had to go through and also only about 1% detransition and the majority that do detransition do so because they don't feel supported or safe and not because they realized it wasn't for them. Also the puberty that is forced on us also causes permanent changes and that is traumatizing for a lot of people.

There is a balance when we're talking about minors, and they should have have mental health professionals following up with them to establish the necessity of medical interventions for them. But again that's minors, where medical consent is a concern. Above the age of 16 informed consent can and should be the standard. A 30 minute appointment with a doctor covering how you feel, what the medication will do, what potential side effects there are, follow up appointments to monitor your blood hormone levels and so on.

You couldn't walk into an informed consent clinic and be like "eh. Idk. Maybe hormones could be fun to try.". Like they would just refuse to give them to you. You are expected to figure out what you want, and in the appointment you have they will go over your reasons for starting HRT and what your expectations are. The doctor will try and correct your expectations a bit and note down what made you want to start HRT. They go over your blood levels quickly to make sure that HRT won't interfere with your health in any way.

Making a grown woman, who knows she wants HRT, prove that she wants it to a medical system is degrading and torturous. To be made to wait years to prove to someone else that you want something that you know you want when you're a grown adult who understands the risks and consequences. It's awful, and is not what is considered best practice by WPATH.

In reference to what you said about wait times, generally wanting to dress a certain way or play pretend as a certain character isn't all that goes into feeling trans. Usually, it is on some level knowing that you would be happier as a certain gender or with that gender's features. It's like other forms of body modification, like ear piercings. People don't get their ears pierced because they want to wear dresses, they get their ears pierced because they want ear piercings - though the two are often seen together. Similarly, someone won't just get go on testosterone or estradiol because they want to wear suits or dresses - they will go on the hormone of their choice because they feel like they would be happier with that hormone.

I'm 36 years old. So waiting never has been an issue to me, even though I become a bit restless at the though of waiting and not progressing in any direction.

But no the screening isnt just about checking if you are just going through a phase, I believe. Its also about making an "informed decision", whatever that means really. Im not going through a phase and used the last month extensively to gather info, researching and testing out what works for me. But that would be something akin to self diagnostic, and Healthcare Providers (public) really don't like that... so you need to have an expert opinion on the matter.

Not really comparable, but I’m as hetero/cis as it gets, and I played Wonder Woman on the playground for years, always had a feminine side regarding dress, etc. Hell, I’m 52 and have finally figured out to buy women’s clothing as it fits me better.

Curious how much pressure you felt to take HRT.