NightingaleMD posted... Depends on how you define "support."
Personally, this feels like something that needs more research. The confounding psychiatric conditions I see on these patients make it difficult at times to assess. This is such a controversial area I won't say anything further beyond my wish more is known about etiology of gender dysphoria.
But if you mean "support" in terms of professional work, my opinion is irrelevant. I have very rigid guidelines to enforce. If I get a letter from their psych doc saying it's okay, I see good documentation of the gender dysphoria, continuous hormone therapy usage (depends on age), and a few other things I approve surgery.
The hardest requirement to meet is "exclusion of incongruency." This is hard to meet since it becomes a cart-before-the-horse phenomenon. Ie, I had a case where one doc documented a 14 year old wanted reassignment because she was angry at her parents. I don't know if that's true but I can't by policy approve if someone documents that.
These are pretty rare anyway but can involve over 100 pages of chart to review. Even one thing out of line like what I mentioned can derail the whole thing.
Same for any procedure, really. It's not a secret that insurance companies don't want to pay for things. Personally I think that's a part of the overall Healthcare problem but what do I know...
And I feel like I've derailed this topic enough so I'll step out.
A lot of words to just tell CSCA "no."