*Of course, I found out about this shortly before I ended up going off HBC because I’d finally realized that many of my health problems were, in fact, unacceptable side effects.

So I have no choice in the matter. At all.

Well, except to get it financed, of course.

I want an IUD, and cannot get one. I will have to write on that. Suffice to say the insurance industry is fucked up. The ONE treatment that is highly effective for endometriosis with none of the side effects of the other effective treatments (GNRH antagonists, which stop production of estrogen, producing a state of synthetic menopause so to speak, and bringing with it the hot flashes and bone density loss and high risk for developing osteoporosis) they don’t fucking cover even for medical necessity. And I don’t get a “choice” — free market my squishy ass — I either pony up the $600 (but they have financing! ooh!) or don’t get it and suffer through the pain.

Bleah.

I would be profoundly surprised if it were not cissexist. Every the health insurance policy I have ever had has had a clause in the EXCLUSIONS section specifically excluding treatment related to anything trans. On the even more evil than usual end of things this has included the denial of coverage for treatment of ovarian/cervical/uterine/breast cancers for trans women and testicular/penile cancers for trans men; because those are parts that some trans people would like to have removed as part of their physical transitions, hysterectomies, oophorectomies, mastectomies, orchiectomies aren’t covered even if they would be medically indicated for non-trans people who had those organs. And because radio and chemo are expensive therapies they deny coverage for those because they’re not going to cover anything that has to do with those parts at all. Because medical care related to being trans is fundamentally cosmetic and elective.

I’d imagine the FamilyPACT would justify their anti-trans policies (presuming they have them) by pointing out that they have very limited resources available (which is true) and there aren’t a lot of trans people (maybe there’d be more if the world weren’t so violently opposed to our existence) so they have to put their money where it will do the most good. It’s not personal or anything, and they’ve got nothing against trans folk, they just don’t have the training to know what to do with them and the budget’s so tight and why are you freaks worried about reproducing anyway aren’t y’all sterile from taking hormones imported from Mexico already?

Though the NHS is a wonderful thing (@ Icy bear, birth control is free in the UK. It just is. Rejoice) my local Family Planning Clinic (UK equivalent to Planned Parenthood) is just useless if you need an alternative to the contraceptive pill.

It took them months to be convinced that I needed an IUCD (coil) called a Mirena fitted. It reduces blood flow to almost nothing as I was constantly anaemic and didn’t take to the pill terribly well, but has to be fitted by an expert, your local doctor probably won’t do. Their struggle seemed to be based around the fact that they couldn’t understand (a) why a woman not in a sexual relationship would attend a Family Planning clinic and (b) why she’d choose that particular method. How many times did I have to repeat, “I hate what the pill does to me, I’m fat enough already.” Too many to count.