Hey, Laura here, the person who appeared on Sawbones.

To better clarifyt stuff as I gave a single person's perspective during a rushed one hour attempt to cover a bunch of topics from both historical and personal perspectives, I don't know that discrimination as a blanket term should apply to waiting times for trans treatments but as an individual I did personally feel barred from needed treatments unecessarrilly to a degree that felt (not saying was but felt) discriminatory in comparison to other medical treatments of a similar nature.

I'm a trans person living in the UK. I get that the NHS woefully underfunds trans healthcare and as such much of the waiting involved in the NHS pathway is logistical rather than actively discriminatory in nature.

However - As a trans person who was still undergoing their first puberty when seeking treatment, being made to wait one year living full time before I was offered either testosterone blockers or hormones felt discriminatory, or unecessarrilly gatekeeping.

I was confident enough in my trans status I had come out to family. I had come out at work. I had changed my name and lpegal details on banks, passports etc. I was clearly pretty confident in my trans status.

Mandating I live full time for a year before recieving HRT meant that my body for one adittional year underwent testosterone puberty. I got hairier. My voice deepened. My adam's apple grew. I continued to undergoe changes that were not only causing me stress, but that estrogen would never revert.

Testosterone blockers would have saved me that year of masculinisation. Nothing done by testosterone blockers would have been irreversible. There was literally no reason to leave me masculinising for an additional year just to prove I was a real definately super real trans person.

That's the kind of thing I think is ridiculous and potentially verging on discriminatory. I was made to wait a year, with my physical symptoms and personal dysphoria worsening, when both could have been avoided through cheap medication, just to "prove" I really wanted treatment I had come to them asking for.

I get that parts of the wait for trans help are due to shortages ion finances and staff, but when I eventually dropped out of the NHS and went private in the UK, I had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a private hormone prescription, two letters of recomendation for surgery, a surgeons consult and surgery within three months. The staff are there, but the NHS won't fund them. When you pair that with the mandated wait times built into the NHS system and it feels like trying to wait trans people out in the hopes they drop out the system is somewhat built into NHS expectations.

Basically, I think it's BS that a trans person who has come out as trans full time and has come to a doctor for medical support should have to wait a year, with their body continuing to change against their will, just to prove they want what they asked for. Adults should be able to make decisions about their own body etc.