What is the Average Wait Time for Gender-Affirming Care (Specifically Surgery) in the East Bay?
I'm doing a research project on gender-affirming care roadblocks (especially wait times), and I'm curious as to what the wait times are for care in the the East Bay. I'm under the impression that most people can get HRT fairly quickly (though I know there's a shortage and some people don't get it quite as fast), but that surgery is more of a wait and that wait is more pronounced on Medicaid. I'm comparing that to places with public healthcare, like the NHS in the UK. The wait times there are much longer (unsurprisingly, maybe) than in the U.S. and people can get their care faster if they have private insurance (similar to the Medicaid-private health insurance divide in the U.S.). But there are also organizations like GenderGP and Eden Life that advocate for trans patients and can speed up gender care. Mostly, I'm trying to pinpoint what we're really talking about when we talk about "average weight times" for care to get a more complete picture, and how it compares to weight times for other categories of healthcare. So, if you've had experience with gender-affirming care in the East Bay, what kind of wait did you have for HRT, for mental health care (if you wanted it), and for surgery? What was your insurance situation, and did you ever contact a third-party org that could reduce your wait in the public insurance system. Thanks for your help.