So then, a friend of mine who has been referred to the same gender reassignment clinic as I am has recieved a letter stating that they are full, and that it will be many months before he can even have his preliminary consultation. It will be even longer for me because my referral was made later.

Basically the NHS's care for transsexuals in the North of England is pathetic. I can't wait for years, it has already taken me far too long. That was time spent reaching psychological readiness so it wasn't a complete waste, but still, I'm rapidly approaching 30 and still haven't done anything concrete about transitioning which is highly distressing.

To go private it is roughly £1,000-£1500 for the first year on hormones. This isn't as massive an amount of money as I thought, but it is still out of my reach. (That's £240 for the first consultation, £130 for quarterly check ups, travel costs to London and other hidden costs I'm not aware of which usually crop up when you try to do anything)

I am seriously considering attempting to crowd source funding, if fifteen hundred people gave £1 I could be well on my way. People will see it as selfish, maybe it is, I'm sure there are many more deserving charity cases out there. I'm sure all the transwomen and men on here would have an equally valid reason to ask for the same. In fact probably a more valid reason since a lot of people around the world don't have the NHS (bad though it is).

But in a way asking for direct funding is more moral. As it is, everyone in the UK is funding a ponderous NHS process whether they support my need to transition or not. If I go private it will take pressure off the NHS and I'll be being funded directly by people who understand the horror of gender dysphoria and want to help.

Maybe I should suck it up, get a job, but the debilitating depression and agoraphobia that have been part of my gender dysphoria have severely limited my ability to find work. I am well aware of how lame that sounds, I hate it myself. I would love never to have to ask for money because it is demeaning but sometimes the only thing left to do is to swallow my pride and ask for help. Anyway these are just my thoughts so far. I'm a way from actually setting up a kickstarter campaign or something. I'm just thinking out loud. Is it a good idea? Feel free to tell me if not but please be gentle when you do :-)

Also does anyone have a list of private gender reassignment clinics in the UK or a link to where I can find that information? So far http://www.transhealth.co.uk/ is the only one I can readily find.

Dana