Healthcare for trans and non binary people in the UK today is in crisis. Patients wait as long as four years for a first appointment and this can be followed by a further 24 month wait for a prescription. So how does a gender variant person even begin to navigate the NHS and why is it so hard to get access to help when being transgender or non binary is a recognised condition? Dr Helen Webberley and her co host, Marianne Oakes, discuss this and more in episode three of the GenderGP podcast.

We hope you enjoyed our podcast.

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know.

Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to share!

Gender healthcare in the UK

Dr. Helen Webberley: Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. In today’s podcast, we’re going to be talking about trans healthcare in the UK today, what happens now, and what we’d like to see in the future, what’s blue sky thinking, and what’s really achievable. Marianne, you’ve just been through the NHS healthcare route, and you speak to a lot of clients who have been in that process. Do you want to kick things off? How does it work today? What’s the current process?

Marianne Oakes: I think the first process for everybody, or I’m going to say most people, is to go to the GP. My understanding is that it’s supposed to be a straightforward process to the gender clinic, obviously the nearest gender clinic to you. Once you get that referral, you are basically on a potentially two-year waiting list. Just bear in mind that the two-year waiting time is just for your first appointment. I have heard recently that some gender clinics are doing interim appointments, where they’re not clinic appointments, but they just bring you in and introduce you to the service. I think that’s been introduced just to make people feel less anxious. Once you do enter the service, they will assess you, give you a formal diagnosis, and plan a pathway for you. The only issue I really have with that is, aside from the waiting time, is that everything is taken away from you. You have no control over it. So basically, these people go into a room, talk about you, and decide what’s best for you, then tell you what is best for you without your input. I think that’s really the early part of most people’s transition. The early steps. It’s a long process, and it’s a disempowering process. I’m thinking what we experience is people going to look for alternatives because of that process. People look for alternatives bridging prescriptions. For me, trans healthcare at the early stages of transition is about cross sex hormones and access to cross sex hormones. It is a crucial part for many people of their social transition. Without the cross sex hormones, they don’t feel able to start their social transition. That’s multifaceted and probably for another podcast. Hopefully, I’ve put it in a nutshell what is going on in the UK today.

Dr. Helen Webberley: So from the medical point of view, I’m just going to go back to the grass roots, really. If you’re a transgender person, you’ll be assigned what we call assigned a particular gender at birth.

Healthcare for trans and non binary people in the UK today is in crisis. Patients wait as long as four years for a first appointment and this can be followed by a further 24 month wait for a prescription. So how does a gender variant person even begin to navigate the NHS and why is it so hard to get access to help when being transgender or non binary is a recognised condition? Dr Helen Webberley and her co host, Marianne Oakes, discuss this and more in episode three of the GenderGP podcast.

 

We hope you enjoyed our podcast.

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know.

Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to share!

 

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Gender healthcare in the UK

 

Dr. Helen Webberley:

Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. In today’s podcast, we’re going to be talking about trans healthcare in the UK today, what happens now, and what we’d like to see in the future, what’s blue sky thinking, and what’s really achievable. Marianne, you’ve just been through the NHS healthcare route, and you speak to a lot of clients who have been in that process. Do you want to kick things off? How does it work today? What’s the current process?

Marianne Oakes:

I think the first process for everybody, or I’m going to say most people, is to go to the GP. My understanding is that it’s supposed to be a straightforward process to the gender clinic, obviously the nearest gender clinic to you. Once you get that referral, you are basically on a potentially two-year waiting list. Just bear in mind that the two-year waiting time is just for your first appointment. I have heard recently that some gender clinics are doing interim appointments, where they’re not clinic appointments, but they just bring you in and introduce you to the service. I think that’s been introduced just to make people feel less anxious. Once you do enter the service, they will assess you, give you a formal diagnosis, and plan a pathway for you. The only issue I really have with that is, aside from the waiting time, is that everything is taken away from you. You have no control over it. So basically, these people go into a room, talk about you, and decide what’s best for you, then tell you what is best for you without your input. I think that’s really the early part of most people’s transition. The early steps. It’s a long process, and it’s a disempowering process. I’m thinking what we experience is people going to look for alternatives because of that process. People look for alternatives bridging prescriptions. For me, trans healthcare at the early stages of transition is about cross sex hormones and access to cross sex hormones. It is a crucial part for many people of their social transition. Without the cross sex hormones, they don’t feel able to start their social transition. That’s multifaceted and probably for another podcast. Hopefully, I’ve put it in a nutshell what is going on in the UK today.

Dr. Helen Webberley:

Dr Helen Webberley and Marianne Oakes explore some of the myths around gender variance by addressing some frequently asked questions received via GenderGP including:

•       Can there really be infinite gender identities?

•       Can you make someone transgender by supporting them?

•       Can you stop being transgender if you don't want to be?

•       Why is it becoming so much more common?

•       Is it fair on your family to transition?

•       Why can't you just live as your birth gender?

•       Will the feelings lessen with time?

 

Useful links:

www.gendergp.com

 

We hope you enjoyed our podcast

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know.

Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to share!

 

 

The GenderGP Podcast 

What does it mean to be trans in Britain today?

 

Dr. Helen Webberley:

Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. We’re going to talk today about what it means to be transgender in today’s world, in 2018 and beyond. I suppose that leads us on to the first concept, really. Marianne, help me out. How many gender identities can there possibly be? Someone said to me a while ago that there are infinite gender identities, and I was telling my son that, and he told me that if I ever said that publicly, I was going to have it ripped out and that kind of thing. And so, is it true? Can we have an infinite number of gender identities? What does it mean?

Marianne Oakes:

Personally, I think the simple answer to that is “yes”. The only reason I would say that is I had gender explained to me really simply by one of my clients in the therapy room. They were explaining to the dad, who was struggling with the concept of non-binary, that he sees the world as men, women, boys, girls. And he’s got his child there trying to explain, “Actually, dad, I’m not a girl.” So imagine that men are black, and women are white. They said to the dad, “Actually, I’m a funny colour grey. I’m not quite one or the other.” We are all shades of grey along that spectrum. If we were to divide that spectrum to finite segments, then yes, there will be an infinite amount of gender identities. I’m not sure there is an infinite amount of ways to describe those identities. That would be a different subject altogether. But even if you see what we would term a cis-woman, she could be wearing more masculine clothes or she could be wearing more feminine clothes. What shade of grey would she be? Likewise, for a cis-gender man, what does it even mean to be a man? What does masculinity mean? So yes, I think there is an infinite amount of gender identities. Is there an infinite amount of words to describe it? I’m not sure.

Dr. Helen Webberley:

I love that concept. It’s brilliant. If you think about it, that colour grey, which was talked about elegantly by your client in the therapy room,

Dr Helen Webberley and Marianne Oakes explore some of the myths around gender variance by addressing some frequently asked questions received via GenderGP including:

•       Can there really be infinite gender identities?

•       Can you make someone transgender by supporting them?

•       Can you stop being transgender if you don't want to be?

•       Why is it becoming so much more common?

•       Is it fair on your family to transition?

•       Why can't you just live as your birth gender?

•       Will the feelings lessen with time?

Useful links:

www.gendergp.co.uk

We hope you enjoyed our podcast

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know.

Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to share!

The Gender GP Podcast 

What does it mean to be trans in Britain today?

Dr. Helen Webberley: Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. We’re going to talk today about what it means to be transgender in today’s world, in 2018 and beyond. I suppose that leads us on to the first concept, really. Marianne, help me out. How many gender identities can there possibly be? Someone said to me a while ago that there are infinite gender identities, and I was telling my son that, and he told me that if I ever said that publicly, I was going to have it ripped out and that kind of thing. And so, is it true? Can we have an infinite number of gender identities? What does it mean?

Marianne Oakes: Personally, I think the simple answer to that is “yes”. The only reason I would say that is I had gender explained to me really simply by one of my clients in the therapy room. They were explaining to the dad, who was struggling with the concept of non-binary, that he sees the world as men, women, boys, girls. And he’s got his child there trying to explain, “Actually, dad, I’m not a girl.” So imagine that men are black, and women are white. They said to the dad, “Actually, I’m a funny colour grey. I’m not quite one or the other.” We are all shades of grey along that spectrum. If we were to divide that spectrum to finite segments, then yes, there will be an infinite amount of gender identities. I’m not sure there is an infinite amount of ways to describe those identities. That would be a different subject altogether. But even if you see what we would term a cis-woman, she could be wearing more masculine clothes or she could be wearing more feminine clothes. What shade of grey would she be? Likewise, for a cis-gender man, what does it even mean to be a man? What does masculinity mean? So yes, I think there is an infinite amount of gender identities. Is there an infinite amount of words to describe it? I’m not sure. 

Dr. Helen Webberley: I love that concept. It’s brilliant. If you think about it, that colour grey, which was talked about elegantly by your client in the therapy room, when the sun goes behind the cloud, that grey sort of changes a bit, which means that whatever shade of grey you are on the spectrum, it can also change with the day, with the month, with the feeling of support you have.

Welcome to the first episode of the GenderGP podcast featuring Dr Helen Webberley, GP and Gender Specialist, and Marianne Oakes, lead counsellor at GenderGP. In this introductory episode we're going to talk a little about why we decided to launch this podcast and what we will be covering in this first season.

Who are we? GP and Gender Specialist, Dr Helen Webberley, has been fighting for the rights of gender variant people to access prejudice-free healthcare since she founded GenderGP in 2015. Recognised as one of the foremost doctors in the field of private gender care, Dr Webberley believes in a gender affirmative approach and takes her lead from the international centres of excellence. In her role as CEO and Medical Director of GenderGP, Dr Webberley provides access to healthcare services for patients while they wait to access care provided via the NHS or as a stand alone service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marianne Oakes is head of the psychological support team at GenderGP, a service which specialises in the multidisciplinary treatment of gender variant people. She has great experience in one to one therapy, couples and family counselling. Marianne came to this branch of therapy after struggling to find a counsellor with the right experience and qualifications to help her with her own journey as transgender woman. Marianne has additionally witnessed her own family's struggles coming to terms with her gender identity, an experience which has given her a unique insight which she brings to her own practice.

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don't forget to share!

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Intro Episode

 

Dr. Helen Webberley:

Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. Okay, great. So we’re going to talk about a little bit today about what you can expect from our series of podcasts. As I said, I’m here with Marianne Oakes. In our work, we’ve come across many people interested in gender, whether it’s ordinary man or woman in the streets, parents or family, children, teenagers, 20 year-olds, 90 year-olds. We’ve had professional people, we’ve had workers. We’ve had doctors, teachers, gold medalists. The gender topic is a huge one, and we’ve found that a lot of people have got a lot of different things that they want to say about gender, or that they want to know about gender. And we realized that it can be a very confusing topic. It almost seems like it’s a new concept and perhaps a new thing that’s entered our social construct. Whereas, actually, if you dig deep into it, it’s been there for a very long time, would you say, Marianne?

Marianne Oakes:

Definitely, I would say, yes. I think the idea of gender being binary is something that has probably grown in our society over more recent times throughout the 20th century. There is evidence that gender variance has been around in culture for a long time. However,

Welcome to the first episode of the GenderGP podcast featuring Dr Helen Webberley, GP and Gender Specialist, and Marianne Oakes, lead counsellor at GenderGP. In this introductory episode we're going to talk a little about why we decided to launch this podcast and what we will be covering in this first season.

Who are we? GP and Gender Specialist, Dr Helen Webberley, has been fighting for the rights of gender variant people to access prejudice-free healthcare since she founded GenderGP in 2015. Recognised as one of the foremost doctors in the field of private gender care, Dr Webberley believes in a gender affirmative approach and takes her lead from the international centres of excellence. In her role as CEO and Medical Director of GenderGP, Dr Webberley provides access to healthcare services for patients while they wait to access care provided via the NHS or as a stand alone service.

Marianne Oakes is head of the psychological support team at GenderGP, a service which specialises in the multidisciplinary treatment of gender variant people. She has great experience in one to one therapy, couples and family counselling. Marianne came to this branch of therapy after struggling to find a counsellor with the right experience and qualifications to help her with her own journey as transgender woman. Marianne has additionally witnessed her own family's struggles coming to terms with her gender identity, an experience which has given her a unique insight which she brings to her own practice.

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed and would like to get in touch please drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us so if you could take a minute or two to leave us an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes it will help others to discover us. Thanks for listening and don't forget to share!

Intro Episode

Dr. Helen Webberley: Hello, this is Dr. Helen Webberley. Welcome to our Gender GP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy. Okay, great. So we’re going to talk about a little bit today about what you can expect from our series of podcasts. As I said, I’m here with Marianne Oakes. In our work, we’ve come across many people interested in gender, whether it’s ordinary man or woman in the streets, parents or family, children, teenagers, 20 year-olds, 90 year-olds. We’ve had professional people, we’ve had workers. We’ve had doctors, teachers, gold medalists. The gender topic is a huge one, and we’ve found that a lot of people have got a lot of different things that they want to say about gender, or that they want to know about gender. And we realized that it can be a very confusing topic. It almost seems like it’s a new concept and perhaps a new thing that’s entered our social construct. Whereas, actually, if you dig deep into it, it’s been there for a very long time, would you say, Marianne?

Marianne Oakes: Definitely, I would say, yes. I think the idea of gender being binary is something that has probably grown in our society over more recent times throughout the 20th century. There is evidence that gender variance has been around in culture for a long time. However, we’ve got fixated on the idea that it’s binary in more recent times. That’s what we’re trying to negate at the moment.

Dr. Helen Webberley: Yes, absolutely. So that concept of binary is something that I came across at school,