GrS QC wait times and going private
Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if people who has top surgery recently could share their timelines because the wait time is so long I'm considering going private (with Dr Laungani in Mtl or going to Mississauga). I'm also open to any other insight or advice you have about the pre-op process (anything before surgery day basically), tell me all the things!
Here's what my timeline has looked like so far:
I don't remember when I called to first connect with hem and have an account on Monarch, but it was late 2024 or early 2025.
Summer 2025: I did a lot of paperwork and reading the initial documents
September 2025: got my letter form a therapist saying I'm a good candidate for the surgery (saying I have dysphoria and I understand what the surgery entails. I also went to my family doctor to fill out the questionnaire about my health saying I'm healthy enough to be able to go under anesthesia. that was the last piece of paperwork that I needed to submit
November 2025: I get word that my paperwork is complete, they need to take about a year to review it
February 2026: I see the news about the wait times getting longer. I message GrS on Monarch to ask how it impacts me
April 2026: I get a message back saying that since my paperwork was officially completed in November, my delay for paperwork will still be 1 year (aka next November), I'm (thankfully) not affected by the longer paperwork wait times that were announced in February.
Spring-Summer of 2026: I start to feel the urgency to solve the dysphoria, binding doesn't to enough, I'm still very uncomfortable, I start thinking about going private. I find out that Dr Laungani (formerly of GrS) does top surgery privately/out of pocket. I can also go to Grs and pay out of pocket. I asked GrS if paying out of pocket would make my wait time shorter and they said that they still need to wait a year before approving my paperwork, even if I pay for it myself. It seems that after November 2026 I could get a surgery date pretty quick with them
Last note: I'm more inclined to go with Dr Laungani because even though the staff I spoke with didn't necessarily have the answers to all my questions, they were nicer and kinder in the way they spoke than the GrS staff and GrS has a bad reputation for post-op things
EDIT: I'm from Quebec/covered by RAMQ if I dont pay out of pocket