AS - Trans MTF

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Papillon which is somewhere in Pennsylvania used to have a blurb on their website, but they've changed it to say what amounts to they have a network of people who can give you advice and they accept credit cards. I used to have a friend transitioning that chose them as her place for SRS because of their financing help, but we've gone our separate ways so I have no idea what her actual experience was with them. I've heard others mention other doctors but never any concrete websites or actual information in the form of documentation or records. What I think it would really end up being is getting a credit card and just using that. I have a credit card right now that I could afford to get SRS on over in Thailand, but the APR would drive up the price to the equivalent of what it would cost here in the US. For my hair transplant surgery, I had to get a citi-health card which is basically a credit card geared to only health related purchases. It's got a 10k limit, and I could also use that, but again, the APR, would drive up the total cost above what it would be here in the US by the time I'm done paying it off.

What I think would be best would be to save up at least half the cost of SRS which in Thailand I think averages out to be somewhere around 4-6k depending on what you get done if anything in addition to SRS. Get a card like a Citi Health Card with an initial zero apr for a year, dump the purchase of SRS and other procedures onto it, dump at least half the amount in payment onto it to pay it off, and then pay the rest off as fast as possible over the next 2-3 years if I still have an income. I think this so far is my best plan, but before I commit to this, I must make sure a few questions I have are answered, and I'm not there yet anyway, so things may change.

You can get a card with a $10,000+ credit limit?

EDIT: As well, can you pay a Thai surgeon with a credit card?

Last edited by beneficii on 05 Dec 2013, 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I know I can, and it's possible for others. I've kept my credit really really good. I spent the last five years paying off my student loans. Never bankrupted myself. My bank has decided that it's okay that I have a credit card with a 10k+ limit. Initially I only had a 500$ limit card when I became an adult, then had a 3k$ limit on another one. Now the banks think I'm so dependable that they trust me with 10k+ limits on cards.

At most I only go maybe 2k into the card to make ends meet before paying it off.

Whether I can pay a Thai surgeon is one of the questions I need answered. It's up to the Thai surgeon to accept what they accept for payment, and I've seen no information on a few websites to others that list they accept various forms of payment from money orders, bank transfers, credit cards, and other means.

I wonder, too, if you can use credit cards around town in Bangkok.

Interestingly, I had $1,400 credit limit on mine as late as last year, and since then I've had medical bills go to collections, and now somehow my credit limit is $3,400! It jumped by $2,000! Of course, I've been really good about using that card and paying it off, so I guess my bank is happy enough.

I remember discussing with someone at the bank a couple years ago, about saving up half the money for surgery in Thailand and getting a credit limit to match the amount I saved and he said I had good chances of doing that. Of course, with medical bills having gone to collections now, I wonder how feasible that really is, anymore.

If it's on your credit report as an outstanding debt, then it probably will have a strong adverse effect on getting enough credit in one shot to cover SRS. Although the 3.4k is close to half of SRS costs in Thailand. I'd check your credit report and see. Debt doesn't always end up on a credit report even if its gone to collections and shouldn't be there at all if it's over the statute of limitations for any municipalities involved.

Well, I know to go to Thailand, I'll probably have to pilfer my retirement accounts. We'll see what I can do.

Ugh. With all this thinking about gender placement and misgendering in hospitals, how to get SRS, etc., I'm starting to feel a bit of a meltdown coming on. I'm starting to get that emotional pain again and my thinking is starting to go funny again.

There is no love in this world. There is only what you can take!

She who dares, wins.

There is love in the world, but whether it's usable in the moment or actually does anything if applicable is another question.

My mother is flying in tomorrow to babysit me post knee surgery next week. Her love has gotten me pretty far, but it won't actually get me transitioned.

Hell. She wouldn't even do that for me.

My parents have been accepting of me being trans.

But it's kind of weird, or at least feels that way even if it isn't compared to what I see others. My dad treats me like I'm an adult and he says that whatever I do, it's my own choice/decision on how to live my life and he won't do it for me, but that I'll always be his child and he loves me. Which is great, but there are quite a bit of things because of that, I can't get him to help with because, he's 2000 miles away and says I can figure it out.

For my mom, I don't really know why she puts up with me exactly but she supports me as far as being her child. I think I got my AS from her. I think a lot of what she does for me is rooted in her AS/(AS like symptoms). We haven't done anything to throw our relationship away, but It's one thing I'm afraid of losing.

As people here may know, I was hospitalized 3 times over the past year or so. Despite having been full-time as a woman and having been on female hormones, I was placed with the men all 3 times on account of still having male genitals. Basically, the hospital works like this: There are a men's hall and a women's hall. Men and women have completely separate common areas and hallways, and men are not allowed in the women's hall/common area, and vice versa, except on very restrictive special occasions. Now, granted, I was given my own room each time, but each time it was on the men's side. Of course, when they place you on the men's side, that means they are going to treat you like a man, no matter how much you protest. This fact fills me with great anger.

Well, I tried an experiment. I looked at 2 other area psychiatric hospitals and I gave each of them a call. Found out that with these hospitals, men and women don't have separate halls or separate common areas. It's only that they have separate room assignments. Now I'm thinking, Why on God's green earth couldn't I have been staying at these places? It's because of my therapist and former psychiatrist, who wanted me, someone they knew was a transgender woman, to stay at that hospital where of course I get put with the men. I guess they couldn't make any consideration and pick any of these other hospitals.

I am getting ready to talk with my therapist about this on Monday and I'm going to want to make things very clear on this matter. I will also express my disappointment in and anger with him over the way he had kept wanting me to stay at the one hospital that would put me with the men and treat me like one. I expect him to change, or I will find another therapist.

My mom took me to a psychologist when I was between the ages of like 10-14 to see if I was molested by my dad. I this found out as an adult. Later we went to see a few psychologists that required her to give a preliminary life history, and she did not like that. She does not like going over negative events in the past.

The day when I told her I am trans, I asked her, can't you see how much better I am on anti-androgens ? And she said, "Maybe you just need higher testosterone"?

My aunt, my step-mom and everyone kept telling her I was wearing girl's clothes, however, she kept clinging to the idea that I was molested. My aunt even asked me when I was at her house, "Are you a girl, or were you molested"?

She cried, and got upset like she failed me. Then she complained, "YOU ARE BEING SELFISH!" many times. She something like how sick it is that her one son does not communicate with her, and her other son - me - wants to be a girl.

Then she said that she never had man in her life, so she had to learn to be a man, so I could too. Then she said, "WHAT WILL I TELL GRANDMA?". She was wrecked that day. She left crying.

She bought me girls clothes eventually and I think she is OK. She does not like that she has no grand children though.

My dad just said: "Life is not a race. Not everyone gets to start at the same place in life". He was very cool about it.

Perhaps it is a legal issue? If you legal gender designation is still male? Perhaps they are required to put you in with men ??