TransGuys

Pro Bono (FREE) Top Surgery for Qualifying Low Income Patients

Gender affirming Top Surgery is known to improve and save lives. However, not all medical insurance companies cover the surgery and some patients don’t have access to insurance or the funds to undergo surgery. As one of the best plastic surgeons performing Top Surgery, Dr. Javad Sajan of Allure Esthetic created a program to offer pro bono Top Surgery to qualifying patients.

Patients may also not get a say in who their surgeon is or have absurd wait times to undergo care. “Many patients on state-subsidized programs have to wait years to get this life saving surgery. Through this program, we offer these patients a chance to have the freedom of choosing their provider and undergoing the surgery in a timely manner,” Dr. Sajan said.

Pro bono Top Surgery is available for those below the poverty line based on the number of people in the household. For an individual who lives alone, this equates to making less than $12,880 per year.

Since Dr. Sajan is located in the Seattle area, and travel and accommodations can be very expensive, the program is mostly going to be of interest to those who live in the Pacific Northwest, although those who have family or close friends in the area may still be able to make it work for them.

To apply for the pro bono Top Surgery program, the patient will need to contact the Allure Esthetic office here to request an application form. Dr. Sajan and the review team will review to identify good surgical candidates and evaluate each applicant’s unique needs.

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Equal Play: Transgender Athletes Talk Fitness & Fairness

For trans men, the chance to participate in sport and exercise can be critical for mental well-being. Men’s Health asked six of them to share their stories.

The Surfer: Taylor Winters, 38

Winters, originally from Transylvania, is used to answering questions on his origins (‘People ask, “Does Transylvania actually exist?” ’ he laughs). After undergoing breast removal– or ‘top surgery’ – in 2019, he discovered a love of surfing, thanks to his reworked physique.

The Weightlifter: Leo Chrzanowski, 29

Growing up in the US and inspired by westerns, Chrzanowski’s first sporting passion was rodeo. After transitioning seven years ago, he feels free to pursue his twin loves of horse riding and weightlifting. His efforts have clearly paid off.

The Boxer: Danny Baker, 34

Currently in training for the World Gay Boxing Championships, Essex-born Baker has always dreamed of boxing against other men on the professional stage.

The Rugby Player: Verity Smith, 40

‘Before rugby, there was nothing. I didn’t know where to fit in,’ Smith has said. Luckily, it turned out he’s pretty good at rugby, having played in both union and league before an accident left him partially paralysed in 2018 – the same year he became the first trans person to win the national ‘Prop Star’ Award.Now playing wheelchair rugby, Smith is focused on promoting inclusion with the charity Mermaids.

The Bodybuilder: Shay Price, 23

From a young age, Price idolised bodybuilders. Now, having spent half of his life as an openly transgender man, Price has overcome genetic setbacks to match his iron-pumping heroes. The next step? Competing on the world stage.

The Martial Artist: Jordan Jackson, 30

As a PT and three-time taekwondo gold medallist, Jackson is on a mission to ‘radically reduce the suicide statistics within the trans community through fitness and a positive mindset’.

(Source: menshealth.com)

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Trans man challenges Japan’s cruel, archaic gender laws with historic legal action

hysto:

There are several reasons why a trans man might choose to have a Hysterectomy.

Satisfying a government’s archaic law shouldn’t be one of them.

Gen Suzuki, 46, has filed a request to legally change his gender without having to undergo surgery and be sterilized.

Japan implemented the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) special case law in 2004. Under the law, transgender people must meet five requirements before they can legally change gender. The individual must be at least 20 years old, not presently married, not have any underage children (under 20), must be sterilized and have genitalia that “closely resemble the physical form of an alternative gender”. In 2019, the Japanese supreme court unanimously upheld the law requiring trans people seeking to legally change their gender to be sterilized.

(Source: Yahoo!)

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Meet Mauricio

Mauricio Ochieng, 30, Kisumu state, Kenya

Mauricio travels seven hours on a bus to Nairobi to collect his testosterone injections. It’s a journey he’s been making for over a year. It’s worth it.

“With the injections my body has started changing, I look less ‘feminine’, my voice is deeper and I’m growing a beard,” he says. “I was finally on the way to becoming myself. I am a man. I was never a woman.”

Growing up in rural Kenya, about 350km from the capital Nairobi, Mauricio knew he was different. He has more than 150 cousins and couldn’t relate to any of them.

“I was the black sheep of the family.”

He knew that he was not a girl, despite his body. His parents believed he was a lesbian. That was bad enough, they said, but it was something they understood. When he told them that he was a man in a woman’s body, they made him leave the family home.

Mauricio was 16 and homeless. He was sexually assaulted multiple times. Just over a year later, he fell pregnant from one of the rapes. People called him a “chkora”, a slur for a street beggar.

He went to his mother’s house and said: “Please don’t make me give birth in the street like a dog.”

She let him come home.

Mauricio’s daughter was born in 2007. He worked at the local market, buying and selling shoes.

In 2018 he decided to begin his transition. Testosterone injections cost around 1,200 shilling per dose (about £9) - which is a day’s work.

The 14-hour round trip each month to collect his medication felt like a huge achievement. Mauricio was saving up for Top Surgery: to have his breasts removed.

Then coronavirus reached Kenya, and soon lockdown restrictions followed.

Mauricio does not have his next supply of testosterone.

“I’m having sleepless nights, depression,” he says. “What will happen if I cannot have access to my medication? What will all this pain have been for?

"I am a trans man in a transphobic country. If I don’t get my medication what will happen to my body - it is already changing. Will I look abnormal? Who is going to fight for us to be heard in this chaos?”

(Source: bbc.com)

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10 Ways To Avoid Getting Caught Up In a Testosterone Shortage

There’s zero indication that testosterone shortages are going away, so it’s important to arm yourself with information so that you know what to do when a shortage strikes. 

1. The best way to avoid a testosterone shortage is to not let yourself run out of T to begin with. It’s a good idea to always keep a backup vial around, but this is becoming harder to do in many areas of the U.S. where 10ml and 5ml vials are no longer dispensed and only 1ml vials are available. (Seemingly all of the sudden, pharmacies are enforcing the 28-day rule that calls for multi-dose vials to be discarded 28 days after first use.) If you can, leave a spare vial in your emergency kit, and order your testosterone prescription refill BEFORE you actually run out of T!

2. Get informed about the shortage. Talk with your pharmacist and look up information about the shortage online. You may be able to find out when the shortage is expected to end. In the U.S., you can use this USA Drug Shortage Search tool. In Canada, check here.

3. Take your prescription to another pharmacy. Pharmacies don’t all run out of testosterone at the same time, so if your pharmacy can’t fill your prescription crack the phone book and start calling all the pharmacies in your area, even pharmacies in nearby cities if you have to. You’ll probably need to see your doctor to move your prescription to a different pharmacy.

4. Switch to another brand or formulation. This can be harder to do than it sounds. First, you’ll have to see your doctor for a new prescription. Don’t delay as it’s unlikely that you’ll be the first in line for the alternative brand or formulation and what often happens during a shortage is that the alternative product also becomes unavailable due to increased demand.

In Canada, there are just two brands of injectable testosterone available. They have different concentrations of testosterone requiring a different dosage, as well as different suspension oils which some people are allergic to. If you obtain an alternative brand or formulation, be sure to read the label carefully and compare it to what you normally take.

Switching between different delivery methods, ie. intramuscular vs transdermal, can also lead to difficulty in maintaining stable hormone levels and it can take months for your body to adjust to the switch.

“Switching back and forth between different products is not ideal, and many doctors do not have experience in prescribing the different forms of testosterone,” said Dr Anastacia Tomson during the recent South African shortage.

Of course, be prepared to pay more as all the alternatives to T. cypionate and T. enanthate will be more expensive.

“I noticed a difference when I switched from Reandron to Testex, but this [shortage] is much worse. It’s not just about getting my period back, which is bad enough because it means reliving everything I’ve struggled to get away from, it’s about general changes in my body. I feel more sluggish and tired. And I’ve put on weight.” —Yerai, transgender man in Spain

5. Check with your local trans health clinic. If you have access to a trans health clinic, you may find that they keep some testosterone on hand and can give you shots during a shortage (provided you have an existing prescription.)

6. Get injectable T compounded. Only certain compounding pharmacies can make injectable testosterone so you’ll need to search around. Depending on where you live in the U.S., New Era Pharmacy in Portland, OR may be able to ship to you. Some downsides are that the accuracy of testosterone concentrations in compounded T has been questioned and compounded injectable testosterone can cost twice as much as what you’re used to spending on testosterone.

7. Get T from a friend. This is illegal and would likely be frowned upon by your prescribing doctor, but when times are tough sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

8. Ration your supply of testosterone. If you can reduce your dosage or frequency of injections, you might be able to ride out the shortage, though you probably won’t feel 100%.

9. Patience. If a testosterone shortage isn’t expected to last very long, you might be able to just wait it out, although symptoms of low T will start to creep up as soon as two weeks after a shot.

10. Underground labs. This is illegal and not recommended. Buying testosterone from a rogue internet pharmacy is a dangerous way to obtain medicine, but when you’re left without options the risks can look a little less menacing. If you’re forced to resort to this, you absolutely must purchase a testosterone testing kit.

Hopefully, you’ll never feel the effects of a testosterone shortage, but if you do, at least you’ve got a game plan now.

Source: Testosterone Shortages: Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For YOU?

(Source: transguys.com)

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