It’s always easier to abuse a oppressed person. And since cis women are less oppressed these days and sexual assault of cis women is less socially acceptable, trans women are an easier target to manipulate.

I didn’t really know what I was feeling and why I was having issues like not being able to maintain erections even when I was aroused by my partner. It finally hit me what it was and it continued to get more disruptive until I finally decided to get bottom surgery. But for me that part was physical as well as social dysphoria. Some only experience one or the other or other variations.

Discovering gender dysphoria, ADHD, and Autism have totally changed my life. Only wish it had happened in my 20s instead of mid/late 40s, but at least I have a chance to work on all of it before major age related issues creep up.

FYI, I also did a quick search and it seems like Ritalin allergies are not exactly uncommon especially compared to amphetamine-based medications. Again, I’m not a doctor or pharmacist, just did some basic Googling.

Not a doctor or pharmacist, who you probably should ask, but I think Adderall anf other amphetamine based medications are significantly different from Ritalin. Also, allergies are sometimes related to ingredients other than the drug itself. And maybe an allergist could help determine what specifically you are allergic to in a safer way than just trying another drug if it was that significant of a reaction.

Yes, but mostly because it’s a spectrum disorder and there are concerns about how much care a person will need and thus how much of a burden they will be to a healthcare system. I think it depends on the country you’re emigrating to, of course, but a country with a really good public health system is not going to want ro support someone with a very expensive disease. But for someone like me who doesn’t need care, it isn’t an issue, but because of misunderstanding of what Autism is and the poor classifications of “levels” or “severity”, there’s concern that it could be an issue. At the very least it might require extra documentation and thus lots of extra time to process.

Diagnosis is a relative thing. What do you mean, should you get diagnosed? Are you sure that ADHD isn’t mentioned in your psychiatrist’s chart? It might be hard for them to justify prescribing controlled substances in case of an audit if it’s not. Right now most pharmacies and insurance don’t require a diagnosis code to be sent to justify prescriptions, but it is something that’s starting to get traction as the industry modernizes, even if slowly. But the diagnosis may already be there and may or may not be in your chart. If it is, it likely will get out as insurance companies often require large amounts of information to be sent to them as they tend to just deny claims and say, “we need more information”, so the doctors have no choice but to send entire charts. Also, a lot of the big medical records systems tend not to have good security as well as the intermediaries that transmit data to insurance companies. There was just a big hack last year that shut down a whole bunch of systems due to the consolidation of various systems recently. Anyway, the only way to keep your diagnosis private is to ensure that your doctor doesn’t use electronic records and you don’t use insurance. Otherwise, it’s going to get leaked eventually, somewhere.

Now as to whether that information will be used to discriminate against you, that’s another story. It might be if you intend to emigrate and you likely will be excluded from high security clearance work due to general mental health discrimination in those areas. But otherwise, an employer is unlikely to go looking for the info, at least for now. Usually jobs didn’t require disclosing medical conditions unless they require high physical labor, security clearance, or some other very specialized work that is very sensitive, so YMMV.

And, if you’re in the US at least, the full repeal of Obamacare/ACA has stalled as conservatives have realized how bad that would hurt them. So it’s being picked apart piece by piece instead, and the preexisting conditions part is low on the priority list as it would be high on impact and thus very unpopular if done alone without hiding it in a larger repeal of the ACA.

Anyway, I had similar concerns and decided it was well worth the risk. I may want to emigrate some day, so I have been avoiding an Autism diagnosis, but that has no treatment options for adults anyway, unlike the ADHD. And I no longer have a job with security clearance, so no concerns there.

For reference, I’ve worked in medical billing and charting technology for a couple of decades and I’m currently a software architect for a major health insurance company in the US.

Or craft their argument that trans people don’t exist which is what they are trying to do in many cases by insisting that AGAB is set in stone regardless of actual biology (because biologically people aren’t binarily gendered) or anything else. Even if a mistake was made or any possibility of the existence of intersex or transgenderism, legally they want to enforce the AGAB and nothing else matters. They need well defined categories in order to ignore their existence and thus make an enemy for fascism to fight when a “fake” or “illegal” group tries to get rights, which is needed for fascism to work, and the current enemy, immigrants, are becoming a sore topic.

Yep. Let us survive while creating all the cool stuff and contributing all our energy to society instead of draining it performing painful tedious tasks for a corporation.

It’s a disability. Like with most disabilities, rich people can afford to take the time they need to get around and do things at their own pace. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t let the majority of people exist that way so that’s why it’s a disability, but not a disease.

Cool. I activate all of the public ones. They come and go and rate limit and such. So just use them all. Unless you want to pay or try to find an invite to a free private one. That I can’t help with. But it works for me. Takes a little longer to search all of them, but it’s usually in the background so no big deal for me.

Try prowlarr.

It’s usually the opposite that’s the issue for me. If it’s not free, OK, let’s pay, but if it’s not a reasonable price for the product (including both the content, usability, and reusability, in case of media), then I’ll go out of my way to get it free or totally give up on it depending on how much I want it. That’s why I switched from piracy to Netflix for many years and now am back to piracy because I like shows in the background while working on projects, for example, or piracy, then Steam, then, fuck gaming as much because I found other hobbies.

For me it’s more about perception. I don’t want to be clocked as trans and attacked or kicked out of bathrooms or turned away from gynecologists by shitty scheduling staff (having that issue right now) because of my voice.

Actually that understanding is totally being reevaluated. Anecdotally, my case is a good example, but far from unusual. I never took anti-androgens and my testosterone production significantly reduced once my estrogen levels started to raise. While still only using 1 patch, twice weekly for a few months, my testosterone dropped from around an average of 400-500ng/dL to 46ng/dL. My estradiol levels at that time were still in the low 100pg/mL range. Prior to my surgery I had moved up tp using 3 patches my to bring my estradiol levels to the low 200pg/mL on average and my testosterone dropped to around 10ng/dL.

I did misspeak a bit. You’re body will consider one or the other to be your “primary” hormone and will prioritize production of that and deprioritize production of the other. But all bodies do produce both through various means. And in fact estradiol is essential to male sexual development. Just non-intersex, “average” bodies are not capable of producing as much of the opposite. But if the balance of hormones changes, most people’s bodies will switch, but just be unable to maintain the balance if the imbalance was caused by supplementation.

There is not a hard male/female separation in any species with genders and never has been. Hormones, genetics, hormone intolerance, and many, many other factors play into what genitals we get at birth and what hormones we make and his efficiently we use them. The x/y chromosomes have a little to do with initial selection of “primary” hormone and thus genital creation in the womb, but if the body can’t uptake testosterone effectively, then having a Y chromosome will not produce male genitals and the body will default to a more female configuration and produce estrogen primarily. It’s one reason the “biological sex” fanatics don’t actually want people to get their chromosomes tested. It would destroy their narrative to find out just his common it is for AFAB people to have Y chromosomes, vice versa, or totally different configurations outside of people traditionally classified as intersex.

My point on taking anti-androgens before knowing if you need them is because these are uptake inhibitors and your body us still producing the hormone, but you aren’t using it, do your body produces more, etc. This means, until your testicles are removed, it’s often too late to switch to estrogen-only if you start with anti-androgens. But it’s still not understood how common it is to need them or not, and drug companies refuse to test any hormone therapy for trans people, which is why it’s always “off-label” use, so studies rely primarily on existing data and volunteers and takes decades to compile.

Won’t have immediate effects. It’s a slow process. These hormones don’t have a lot of direct effects on the body, they affect other hormones and other bodily functions. Even two weeks probably will have very little effect. You need several months for emotional changes and breast growth to start up.

Also are you just taking estradiol or also an androgen blocker. General guidance now is to avoid androgen blockers at first and test testosterone levels to see if your body slows production of them. Androgen blockers have side effects, but without them the changes may take more time. And if you use them, generally your body adapts and you can’t stop using them until maybe after bottom surgery. But you may have to use them if your body doesn’t switch from androgen to estrogen production as the primary on its own which can be caused by both genetic and/or environmental factors. For me I may actually need supplementation of testosterone, because even before my bottom surgery, and without anti-androgen I don’t have enough. You need a balance and it takes time for that to happen. I’m over a year and still not fully stabilized.

Anyway,

Often the content is available without masking for a very short time so scrapers can access them or similar tricks to allow them access immediately after posting. But that requires that you hit the server immediately after the story is posted and there is no masking at all usually in those cases. That’s how things like archive.is get a copy for example. But none of that is client/browser side anymore, at least on the major sites. Otherwise it’s easy to defeat if the content is already provided to the browser and just masked with JavaScript or something that runs locally and can be blocked.

Good point, I should have said repulsion to masculine typical features not men since not all men have those features.

This is a list of providers who generally will provide letters with a single visit, though you may need to pay cash: https://dosomethingidentities.org/providers

Note that most of us require a lot more than 2 since they expire and wait lists are long. And you may want to verify if the insurance still follows WPATH from just a few years ago or from decades ago. Current recommendations are just one letter, but we all know most insurance still requires 2. And old ones sometimes required different combinations of providers with and without history with the patient or different levels of education. Also, it’s all just gate-keeping, so don’t feel bad about cheating, since they aren’t even bothering to pretend it’s for medical reasons.

I needed 6 letters personally. 2 to start HRT which as an agender person shouldn’t have even been required even under current versions of WPATH, and wasn’t originally part of my plan, but insurance, not doctors, insisted on, and I was required to be on for a year minimum. (But turned out I actually have enjoyed the breast growth I was a little afraid of, so for me it worked out, but other non-binary people it’s forcing not medically recommended or wanted transitioning on them, the exact thing conservatives say WPATH is there to prevent). 2 more to get a consultation scheduled since the first two were expired by the time I got through that wait lists after the required referral from the HRT prescriber. And another 2 for the surgery date because the second two were too close to expiring for them (though not yet expired).

And for the first 2 rounds I had been on wait lists for both psychiatrists and therapists due to severe shortages in my area, so I would have been delayed another year or more if I didn’t have this list (in it’s previous form as a Google Sheet spreadsheet).

Just had my surgery last month. Now I have regular providers to do letters for the next surgery or revision surgery if needed since all of that will require totally separate letters for both consult and years later surgery dates after wait lists with the different specific surgery mentioned. US healthcare system sucks… 😵‍💫

Actually it just further proves that all of the gender traits that they think are inherent are actually not at all. It’s why so many cis-women are harassed for having slightly “masculine” features in bathrooms these days.