"SHSC Gender Identity Service"

I was referred by my GP to the gender clinic about three years ago. I was told there would be a wait of around 14 months for my first assessment, and then 3-4 months for my final assessment.

14 months later I had my first assessment, whereupon I was advised to contact iapt. I contacted iapt and they said I wasn't allowed to have focused therapy because I was still on the waiting list at the GIC, but they did help with some basic anxiety counselling.

The GIC effectively ghosted me for 18 months. They wouldn't answer my emails and when I called they either asked me to email or told me they didn't have any answers for me.

Eventually, after calling once every 4-6 months for a year and a half, (a time frame which was estimated at 3-6 months) they booked my final assessment.

At my final assessment I was told I would have a letter of confirmation within a week or so and then a detailed summary about a month later.

After a month and a half I called the service and was told the letter was still awaiting confirmation. A week or so later I was sent two appointment invites. Neither stated the reason for the appointment. I still had not received any confirmation/diagnosis. 

As it turned out the first appointment was to discuss hormone therapy, and I there asked the clinician to give me a copy of these letters I hadn't received.

Almost a month after the hormone appointment, I got a copy of a letter sent to my GP saying I could start treatment and another appointment at the GIC. I also made an appointment to see my GP, a week after the GIC appointment was scheduled.

I arrived at the GIC, in the middle of the afternoon,. At short notice, on a work day, to find that my appointment had been double booked and I had to wait an extra 45 minutes anyway. 

When I eventually got seen, I was told that this appointment was a 4 month review for the medication I was due to start a week from now, and that I didn't need to be here.

When I went to my GP, they went over the letter the clinic sent, and found that the medication they had recommended no longer existed. Luckily the GP had experience with prescribing trans patients and knew what to switch me to.

So to sum up, my experience with Sheffield's gender clinic has been that I feel my time & their time has been wasted for three full years on what essentially could've been a counselling session and a consultation with an endocrinologist. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for this to go on for the length of time that it did, or for there to be so many steps involved, especially when, after all that anxiety and waiting and stress, their advice was useless and my GP had to take matters into her own hands anyway.

But what do I know? I'm not a medical professional.