"Being Denied Treatment by the Clinic"

I sought a referral to Sheffield GIC in late 2016. I socially transitioned at 16 in 2015 and realised, as I met other trans people as an adult who had accessed trans healthcare services, that medical transition was possible and something I needed. While on the waiting list, I accessed a private clinic, GenderCare, and began HRT in May 2018 on NHS prescriptions under a shared care agreement between my GP and GenderCare.

I underwent my first assessment at Sheffield in August 2018, my second in Dec 2018 and my third in April 2019. At the end of January 2020, I finally received their response. It was a one page letter saying they couldn’t come to a decision and wouldn’t give me treatment. They wanted a “second opinion” from London GIC. In reality this meant restarting the process. I had over a year of waiting for a first assessment again which occurred in April this year. My second assessment with London GIC is scheduled for next month. If I ever receive treatment from the NHS GICs, it will be years after I would have received it if Sheffield GIC had accepted me. I tried to re-access support from GenderCare but, because of Sheffield’s decision, they refused to take me back because Sheffield’s letter marked me as a “complex” case. I am going to have to somehow access surgery privately because, based on the GIC timeline, I’ll be in my late 20s by the time I get GRS. My dysphoria is too severe to bear.

In February 2020, I sent an email to Sheffield GIC asking them to please reconsider. I can forward this email on, if needed. I rang the service several times in the following months to follow up on the email and was always told the Doctors were working on a reply, but I never received anything. As the months continued, I gave up hope.

I don’t believe this treatment was fair of the service. I was never given an explanation for their decision, but I feel - based on the appointments with the clinicians and the things they said about my gender and dysphoria - that this occurred because of my non-binary transition. This is also based on the fact that this kind of denial of healthcare is often faced by non-binary people whereas all the trans men and women I know were granted healthcare after meeting the requirements for the diagnosis.

I understand that assessments are necessary, but it is clear from the reports that I have a long history of acute gender dysphoria and Sheffield’s decision letter didn’t dispute that. Not only that, but the HRT I was already on had clearly improved my health.

Rather than improving my quality of life, this service has devastated my mental health and, as it stands now, I cannot see how to move forward on alleviating gender dysphoria.