When I had my first gender-affirming medical intervention, I was 21 years old. At that time, the idea of a trans surgery being covered by health insurers was outlandish.
I told them I had been 'living as a man full time' and pretended to fit the clinical definition of gender dysphoria in order to get a letter allowing the surgeon to work on me.
I lay in a hotel bed in Plano, Texas, afterward, as happy as I have ever been... my dad, whose warm supportiveness was rare among parents of trans children at that time, visited me.
Years later, when I started hormone treatments, I was thrilled to find how much the medical community had advanced on trans issues, taking an 'informed consent' approach.
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