this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
240 points (98.0% liked)

UK Politics

3660 readers
234 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Top and bottom surgery.

I don't mean limiting care except for where it's actually unnecessary. Just have enough stringency.

Not even saying we should be more stringent. We might already be stringent enough.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Not even saying we should be more stringent. We might already be stringent enough.

If you have 6 year wait times it sounds like the issue is with the healthcare system failing to meet demand. In the video you linked they were struggling to get even hormones prescribed, citing a bias against self report and diy HRT. I can relate as while I've been able to get it prescribed I've had to pay out of pocket myself (with coupons) for injections because my insurance prioritizes oral and patches first because that's what the formulary says. It doesn't make medical sense because I can't really get to a therapeutic dose on patches, it doesn't make financial sense because patches are way more expensive than shots, but it is an arbitrary decision that makes getting care more difficult.

I think the system is already overly strict, also not the same everywhere, especially for even being able to start the transition process. For transfems facial hair is something that's going to need 'cosmetic' procedures (laser/electrolysis) to remove. The insurance pathway for that in my experience essentially requires you to be on HRT for a considerable length of time before they will even cover the procedure. That kind of wait can really compound mental stresses. I have a good connection for electrolysis and had enough income to get it done in parallel with starting HRT without insurance, but that's the exception.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

A "bias" against self report and DIY HRT is understandable as the person has likely just been hanging out in forums and Discord servers but not assessed by a professional. The NHS wait times are a problem for every health condition and the whole system needs to be improved for everybody, not just for trans care.

I think it's important for it to be assessed first to make sure that necessary care is being funded by the taxpayer and not just cosmetic surgery

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

If your health system is taking 6 years to provide people with a hormone prescription it's clearly complete dog shit. Frankly sounds more like a warcrime than a health service. I don't think that making the care it provides worse for miniorities is going to fix how fucked up it is for everyone else. Maybe try fixing the system itself instead of punishing people for failing to conform to bullshit standards designed to deny care.

Classifying things which are neccessary care as "cosmetic" is how things are gatekept in our for-profit healthcare, as opposed to hand-wringing about misdiagnosis in service of cruel austerity.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I did say we should focus on fixing the system overall. Our healthcare system is NOT for-profit. You're wrong about that.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I know it's not for profit, I explained how classifications are used under our for profit system to do the same things you do under your alleged healthcare system.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

This is a UK politics thread on the UK politics sub on the UK based instance. What do you mean by "our". If you're one of those trumpian interfering yanks, then admit it.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I'm offering you my experience with the US's horrifyingly dysfunctional healthcare system that was still able to give me a prescription within months rather than 6+ years. Maybe you should stop trying to blame trans people for your system failing so many people for so long.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

At no point did I ever blame trans people. I don't know how you even read that out of what I said.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

At no point did I ever blame trans people. I don’t know how you even read that out of what I said.

here's the things that jumped out at me:

A “bias” against self report and DIY HRT is understandable as the person has likely just been hanging out in forums and Discord servers but not assessed by a professional.

based on this I can only conclude that you don't consider self report people to be trans. You're clearly shitting on them for not following the 6 year labyrinth of your health system to get hormones and a proper diagnosis.

from what I can tell your main concern is continuing austerity rather than just figuring out what care is needed and providing it.

I think it’s important for it to be assessed first to make sure that necessary care is being funded by the taxpayer and not just cosmetic surgery

I can conclude and you either missed or dismissed my point about cosmetic surgery. things like electrolysis on the face to remove facial hair may be "cosmetic" but it's also kind of a big deal for transfems who don't follow the puberty blocker track. It involves a lot of work in the system to even get to have that covered, I can assure you that nobody is getting recreational facial electrolysis.

if your concern is actually taxpayers money getting spent well maybe you lot should spend less money on weapons, cops and tax cuts? it's what I tell them here because those things are money pits.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I'm just saying that the surgeries to the face shouldn't be handed out no-questions asked.

It's easy for you as a yank (who tend to think what applies in America applies everywhere else, as yanks tend to be incredibly self centred and trying to project themselves everywhere else) to tell us how to spend our taxpayer's money. Weapons are needed because Europe is literally at war right now, and the UK's police are underfunded (except possibly Northern Ireland, but that region is still dealing with the aftermath of what could be described as a civil war spanning several decades)

Only 3.8% of the treasury goes towards police and 4.8% goes towards defence. Compare that to 18% goes towards health and 22% goes towards welfare.

We don't need you lot telling us how to run our country with your BS. We don't need foreigners telling us how to run our fediverse instances either.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 2 points 50 minutes ago* (last edited 43 minutes ago) (1 children)

It's really telling how as soon as someone critiques the way things are run on swamp island you just get defensive about 'foreigners' rather than taking the constructive criticism about your alleged healthcare system.

I'm an anarchist, I don't like any of these fucking countries, they're all capitalist shitholes, some more so than others. Fuck the wars, literally just setting money on fire and acting like the problem is minorities getting healthcare.

I’m just saying that the surgeries to the face shouldn’t be handed out no-questions asked.

The only way this happens right now pretty much everywhere is if you have money, then you can get whatever gender affirming surgery you want, cis or trans. The issue I have is that even the first step of this process like hormones and non-invasive procedures are already extremely gatekept, do you think they should be more accessible or less?

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 17 minutes ago

I'll need to look more into it. I'm not an expert on the subject and to what level they are gatekept. I just don't agree with some people's opinions that they should be handed out with no questions asked due to someone "self certifying"

[–] sunglocto@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Classic american thinking that every single country has their dogshit pay-to-win healthcare system.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago

at 6 years to provide service you might as well not have a healthcare system