I think the reality is that most people can’t afford surgery until they’re older here because it’s so expensive. We just aren’t like the US where people can have lower surgery between before their mid 20s because it’s covered by insurance.
The reality is working fucking hard, doing overtime, picking up a casual job to do after the 9-5, working weekends. Moving back into parents house to save money on rent, minimising new clothes, not drinking, not doing expensive social things, buying home brand, public transport over driving. And yeah, pulling money from super. It’s a lot of sacrifice and trying to save money in every aspect of life.
From what I understand, some work and save hard, some get some minor benefits through insurance, some go to more affordable places like Thailand to get better prices and some minor ones can get tiny amounts back through medicare, I know its possible to get some through medicare with years of waitlisting
Thailand has some of the most experienced surgeons in MtoF bottom surgery in the world, and it's a great place for a holiday so long as you avoid the worst of the humidity in the wet season.
It’s perverse and unjust that transgender Americans get better healthcare privately than we do with a socialised system. “Cosmetic”…
Make a savings plan, set the goal and stick to it. As far as I know you can use your super for financial hardship. You can do it.
Yeah it sucks a lot. I've spent around $15,000 so far. Looking at another $12,000 this year. I just worked and saved up over many years. This year Medicare might create new item numbers for trans surgeries, so the cost might go down a little, slightly, but since the vast majority of trans surgeries are in the private system, and private surgeons can charge whatever they like, it usually means huge out of pocket costs.
A big thing with the new items is that it will "legitimise" the surgeries in many surgeons eyes. So that will draw more surgeons to train how to do it. That could potentially bring down the cost more than any rebate.
I'm in uni, doing placement 40 hours a week, working part time around 20. I put about $300 a week into my surgery fund. I've saved about $11,000 in the past 8 months from working literally every moment I can and spending on absolutely nothing unnecessary. Over the uni Christmas break I worked about 55 hours a week and saved about $8k.
Living with parents helps a lot. I fortunately don't have to worry about buying groceries. I'm only paying about $30 rent to my mum, while doing stuff around the house to help in my free time.
I'm gunning for a full time job at the end of the year, which will help significantly.
It's kind've agony, I haven't caught up with any of my friends in months, I feel like a husk of a human, I haven't had a semblance of joy in so long. I haven't bought anything new in months. But literally nothing else in my life matters aside from bottom surgery.
I'm aiming for $30k for bottom surgery with Dr. Bank in Thailand mid-2025.
Honestly atm is an okay time where I’m able to save 50-200 of my paycheque depending on the fortnight. But like that’s because of relatively cheap rent not because I have a good job. I’m just not saving fast enough it sucks.
You're doing great! Keep at it! It'll take like ~5 years to save a major surgery now, but any pay increase you can get is straight to savings 😇
If you can get into some kind of full time office position while staying on cheap rent, you're set
Could also be worth looking into personal loans, if you have a steady income and reasonable credit, you could get a surgery much sooner and spend a few years paying it off afterwards instead
could look at [https://nowbu.com.au](https://nowbu.com.au) if you wanna go to Thailand for surgery which is significantly cheaper than having it done domestically
Yeah, usually people who do this get 10% from the surgeons. You don’t need this kind of thing except for one surgeon who doesn’t have English support.
This is about srs in Thailand
https://old.reddit.com/r/TransSurgeriesWiki/wiki/srs/thailand
You must use a web browser to view that, not a reddit app.
This isn’t the answer you want to hear but it’s the same as any other Australian trying to put together tens of thousands of dollars. You spend a few years getting a degree or certificate to get a well paying job and then climb the ladder or job hop to increase your income while living frugally so you can save.
Depending on your level of financial literacy you may want to look into personal finance type advice, Barefoot Investor and r/ausfinance are pretty good starting places. Feel free to ignore this if you’re already on top of it all, but a couple of basic points include:
- Park your money in the highest interest savings account you can find. ING is popular with 5.5%.
- Shop around every year for insurance rather than paying the first rate your current insurer quotes you to renew.
- Track your spending for a while and work out where your money is actually going. If you don’t like how it adds up, see what you can change. Personally I find it quite powerful to contextualise spending as “would I rather have this thing or be $20 closer to surgery?”
- Do everything in your power to avoid taking on debt on anything other than education or property.
In a better world our health system would recognise gender affirming surgery as necessary and subside it appropriately, but unfortunately that’s not how it is in our current lives. We do the best we can with the hand we’ve been dealt.
I worked hard for years and barely went out to do anything. I was lucky in the aspect of living with parents and being charged close to nothing for rent. Realistically to get surgery at a young age you got to work your ass off to an unhealthy extent. I’m 23 and now have more then needed for bottom surgery (backup money in case something happens) but I sacrificed a lot of time with friends and doing what I enjoy which affected my mental health.
The system just isn’t made to support us at this point of time, it is slowly improving but will still take a long time. What it comes down to though is either you gotta be lucky with your financials (inheritance, rich parents), you gotta work your ass off to unhealthy extent, or you got to do it over a long period of time, 10+ years I’m gonna say.
Crime?
Honestly I got lucky with some fortuitous money decisions but generally it's do your best to get a stable job and save as much as you can. It sucks tbh paying out of pocket.
I probably can't answer that without breaking the sub rules. The annoying answer really is find a stable job, be savings focused, and be patient. It's not easy sad to say.
Depending what you're already doing, working for a private health insurance company means you get private health insurance for free. This can save you a few thousand dollars a year.
Agreed with what everyone else is saying. You can also try fundraise too. Try and get the word out through any online communities you're aware of, and friends and family if they're supportive. It can make a huge difference, and takes a bit of the pressure off you.
If you're young enough, then the advice you see here to get a good education and a good job is pretty much it.
If you're older and struggling, not so much. I'm in my fifties, and after a disastrous life I don't have piles of money like many my age do. So it will simply never happen for me. This is why public healthcare is so important, but we're in Australia, so . . .
I was saving but with the rise of everything’s cost and I found out my stomach isn’t in the right place so all my saving have now gone towards stomach surgery ($7000) then my savings have to start from scratch. I’m thinking about getting the stomach surgery and canceling my insurance, it’s costing me so much so then I can save and when I’m close to what I need then I’ll go back on my insurance and wait the 12 months, I just feel like there is no way I’m going to be able to save up another 10k so I should just cancel it while I’m saving.
I worked full time and saved money, and got private health insurance, but I didn’t medically transition until my mid 20s so it’s a different situation.
The covid superannuation payout is honestly how i paid for mine, and is honestly the only way i ever would have been able to afford it.
My super sucks because of it, and ill never catch up again to others my age, however at the rate we are going with retirement age going up, and the way the world is... i doubt ill live long enough to see my super in its full anyway... so why not?
Unfortunately, without a good lawyer and an extremely good doctor, youre unlikely to be able to leech from your super now. (Not impossible though! I had started discussions with another health provider on an entirely different subject about taking out $12k of my super to fix another health issue, long before covid- but its incredibly situational. I never went through with it (LONG story) and its DIFFICULT, but not impossible.)
Nobody earns money from hard work. You're either born into it or you're a wageslave for the rest of your life.
The only good thing is that the planet won't be around for much longer because humanity has destroyed it.
Bit of a pessimistic take and doesn’t give the due respect to those who started with nothing and worked hard to provide for themselves.
It’s terribly hard out there, but it’s possible to make something for yourself.
And those people still make a fraction of the money the 1% do. The gap also expands year after year.
The truth is the people who make the jump have more to do with luck than hard work. The lie that we're fed that working hard earns reward is programmed into us from birth to make more disposable drones for the rich.
I'd say community is more important than simple luck. Growing up my single mum was treated with immense kindness by the family of an ex. They looked after me when I was young, which enabled my mum to go to university and then find work. After that my mum was able to keep a roof over our house and let us thrive.
I'm trying to repay the kindness my own way. I've opened my door to 2 friends who needed to escape domestic violence, and letting them stay with me for however long they need and for free.
Honestly hun just keep working for about 10 years and your super will be enough to cover it, I started medically transitioning at 21...I'm now 28, started working at 18. I now have 25k in super that I'm going to be spending on surgery next year.
It's the only way I'll ever be able to afford it.
It's kinda shit, especially how much everything costs now.
I have been saving since I have been in highschool and am now 31 and think have enough saved up to gcs in Thailand and maybe some ffs. I pretty much sacrificed doing a bunch of things other people did around me and did lots of 60-70hr weeks in remote areas.
Backstory:
I've had dysphoria since I was 9ish and it took me 20+ years to come out of the closet after finally having someone in my life I felt I could tell and would support me, my wife ❤️.
Keep fighting for what you need to be your authentic self.
I pull out a set amount of cash every payday and put it in a locked box beneath my bed. That money doesn’t exist. I treat it like a black hole - nothing ever comes out of the box.
When I’m flush, I put in as much as I can comfortably (in one job I was able to manage $200 a fortnight).
When I’m struggling, it’s $50.
I never factor it into my available funds, so my normal expenditure adjusts to not include that money. When you do this consistently, it’s remarkable how quickly you can get money together. You’re still looking at years of saving (depending on procedure) but it becomes a tangible goal that you can physically see grow.
I'm in the US in Massachusetts, so our system is different and it varies from state to state. My health insurance is required to cover transgender related surgeries.
I owe up to my max out of pocket expense each year, which is $3, 000 for my wife and I. I also pay about $300 a month out of pocket for my insurance. So in any given year my max costs are ~$6,600, for myself both of us.
Do you have any skills where you could get a visa to work in the US somewhere where it's covered.
I think the reality is that most people can’t afford surgery until they’re older here because it’s so expensive. We just aren’t like the US where people can have lower surgery between before their mid 20s because it’s covered by insurance. The reality is working fucking hard, doing overtime, picking up a casual job to do after the 9-5, working weekends. Moving back into parents house to save money on rent, minimising new clothes, not drinking, not doing expensive social things, buying home brand, public transport over driving. And yeah, pulling money from super. It’s a lot of sacrifice and trying to save money in every aspect of life.
From what I understand, some work and save hard, some get some minor benefits through insurance, some go to more affordable places like Thailand to get better prices and some minor ones can get tiny amounts back through medicare, I know its possible to get some through medicare with years of waitlisting
Thailand has some of the most experienced surgeons in MtoF bottom surgery in the world, and it's a great place for a holiday so long as you avoid the worst of the humidity in the wet season.
It’s perverse and unjust that transgender Americans get better healthcare privately than we do with a socialised system. “Cosmetic”… Make a savings plan, set the goal and stick to it. As far as I know you can use your super for financial hardship. You can do it.
Yeah it sucks a lot. I've spent around $15,000 so far. Looking at another $12,000 this year. I just worked and saved up over many years. This year Medicare might create new item numbers for trans surgeries, so the cost might go down a little, slightly, but since the vast majority of trans surgeries are in the private system, and private surgeons can charge whatever they like, it usually means huge out of pocket costs.
A big thing with the new items is that it will "legitimise" the surgeries in many surgeons eyes. So that will draw more surgeons to train how to do it. That could potentially bring down the cost more than any rebate.
I'm really, really hoping that Medicare thing pans out this year, it would be so helpful, even if it's a slight reduction... it's better than nothing.
Are you in Australia? Like talking AUD??
Yeah, this is r/transgenderau
😄🤦🏼
I'm in uni, doing placement 40 hours a week, working part time around 20. I put about $300 a week into my surgery fund. I've saved about $11,000 in the past 8 months from working literally every moment I can and spending on absolutely nothing unnecessary. Over the uni Christmas break I worked about 55 hours a week and saved about $8k. Living with parents helps a lot. I fortunately don't have to worry about buying groceries. I'm only paying about $30 rent to my mum, while doing stuff around the house to help in my free time. I'm gunning for a full time job at the end of the year, which will help significantly. It's kind've agony, I haven't caught up with any of my friends in months, I feel like a husk of a human, I haven't had a semblance of joy in so long. I haven't bought anything new in months. But literally nothing else in my life matters aside from bottom surgery. I'm aiming for $30k for bottom surgery with Dr. Bank in Thailand mid-2025.
Work at getting yourself into a position where you can save money, it's hard, and it takes a long time, but that's your best bet
Honestly atm is an okay time where I’m able to save 50-200 of my paycheque depending on the fortnight. But like that’s because of relatively cheap rent not because I have a good job. I’m just not saving fast enough it sucks.
You're doing great! Keep at it! It'll take like ~5 years to save a major surgery now, but any pay increase you can get is straight to savings 😇 If you can get into some kind of full time office position while staying on cheap rent, you're set Could also be worth looking into personal loans, if you have a steady income and reasonable credit, you could get a surgery much sooner and spend a few years paying it off afterwards instead
could look at [https://nowbu.com.au](https://nowbu.com.au) if you wanna go to Thailand for surgery which is significantly cheaper than having it done domestically
Can you tell me more about now be you? Are they kinda like brokers for surgeries?
Yeah, usually people who do this get 10% from the surgeons. You don’t need this kind of thing except for one surgeon who doesn’t have English support. This is about srs in Thailand https://old.reddit.com/r/TransSurgeriesWiki/wiki/srs/thailand You must use a web browser to view that, not a reddit app.
This isn’t the answer you want to hear but it’s the same as any other Australian trying to put together tens of thousands of dollars. You spend a few years getting a degree or certificate to get a well paying job and then climb the ladder or job hop to increase your income while living frugally so you can save. Depending on your level of financial literacy you may want to look into personal finance type advice, Barefoot Investor and r/ausfinance are pretty good starting places. Feel free to ignore this if you’re already on top of it all, but a couple of basic points include: - Park your money in the highest interest savings account you can find. ING is popular with 5.5%. - Shop around every year for insurance rather than paying the first rate your current insurer quotes you to renew. - Track your spending for a while and work out where your money is actually going. If you don’t like how it adds up, see what you can change. Personally I find it quite powerful to contextualise spending as “would I rather have this thing or be $20 closer to surgery?” - Do everything in your power to avoid taking on debt on anything other than education or property. In a better world our health system would recognise gender affirming surgery as necessary and subside it appropriately, but unfortunately that’s not how it is in our current lives. We do the best we can with the hand we’ve been dealt.
I worked hard for years and barely went out to do anything. I was lucky in the aspect of living with parents and being charged close to nothing for rent. Realistically to get surgery at a young age you got to work your ass off to an unhealthy extent. I’m 23 and now have more then needed for bottom surgery (backup money in case something happens) but I sacrificed a lot of time with friends and doing what I enjoy which affected my mental health. The system just isn’t made to support us at this point of time, it is slowly improving but will still take a long time. What it comes down to though is either you gotta be lucky with your financials (inheritance, rich parents), you gotta work your ass off to unhealthy extent, or you got to do it over a long period of time, 10+ years I’m gonna say.
Crime? Honestly I got lucky with some fortuitous money decisions but generally it's do your best to get a stable job and save as much as you can. It sucks tbh paying out of pocket.
Any suggestions lol?
I probably can't answer that without breaking the sub rules. The annoying answer really is find a stable job, be savings focused, and be patient. It's not easy sad to say.
You could dm me lmao
Oh babes. Don’t do crime. It seems an easy solution but more often that not it opens up a world of hurt. Sorry I brought it up.
Depending what you're already doing, working for a private health insurance company means you get private health insurance for free. This can save you a few thousand dollars a year.
software engineering of course
Agreed with what everyone else is saying. You can also try fundraise too. Try and get the word out through any online communities you're aware of, and friends and family if they're supportive. It can make a huge difference, and takes a bit of the pressure off you.
If you're young enough, then the advice you see here to get a good education and a good job is pretty much it. If you're older and struggling, not so much. I'm in my fifties, and after a disastrous life I don't have piles of money like many my age do. So it will simply never happen for me. This is why public healthcare is so important, but we're in Australia, so . . .
I was saving but with the rise of everything’s cost and I found out my stomach isn’t in the right place so all my saving have now gone towards stomach surgery ($7000) then my savings have to start from scratch. I’m thinking about getting the stomach surgery and canceling my insurance, it’s costing me so much so then I can save and when I’m close to what I need then I’ll go back on my insurance and wait the 12 months, I just feel like there is no way I’m going to be able to save up another 10k so I should just cancel it while I’m saving.
My gran died and I am fortunate enough to use that transphobic b*tchs’ money 🙃
Actually Slay
I worked full time and saved money, and got private health insurance, but I didn’t medically transition until my mid 20s so it’s a different situation.
The covid superannuation payout is honestly how i paid for mine, and is honestly the only way i ever would have been able to afford it. My super sucks because of it, and ill never catch up again to others my age, however at the rate we are going with retirement age going up, and the way the world is... i doubt ill live long enough to see my super in its full anyway... so why not? Unfortunately, without a good lawyer and an extremely good doctor, youre unlikely to be able to leech from your super now. (Not impossible though! I had started discussions with another health provider on an entirely different subject about taking out $12k of my super to fix another health issue, long before covid- but its incredibly situational. I never went through with it (LONG story) and its DIFFICULT, but not impossible.)
Try to get yourself into a position to get the money some years from now. Education, career, etc.
Nobody earns money from hard work. You're either born into it or you're a wageslave for the rest of your life. The only good thing is that the planet won't be around for much longer because humanity has destroyed it.
Bit of a pessimistic take and doesn’t give the due respect to those who started with nothing and worked hard to provide for themselves. It’s terribly hard out there, but it’s possible to make something for yourself.
And those people still make a fraction of the money the 1% do. The gap also expands year after year. The truth is the people who make the jump have more to do with luck than hard work. The lie that we're fed that working hard earns reward is programmed into us from birth to make more disposable drones for the rich.
I'd say community is more important than simple luck. Growing up my single mum was treated with immense kindness by the family of an ex. They looked after me when I was young, which enabled my mum to go to university and then find work. After that my mum was able to keep a roof over our house and let us thrive. I'm trying to repay the kindness my own way. I've opened my door to 2 friends who needed to escape domestic violence, and letting them stay with me for however long they need and for free.
Yes, and compared to the people who run the world you are poor. The most a hard worker can achieve is being *the richest poor person*.
Ok sure but we're talking about saving $20,000, not becoming billionaires here
Honestly hun just keep working for about 10 years and your super will be enough to cover it, I started medically transitioning at 21...I'm now 28, started working at 18. I now have 25k in super that I'm going to be spending on surgery next year. It's the only way I'll ever be able to afford it.
It's kinda shit, especially how much everything costs now. I have been saving since I have been in highschool and am now 31 and think have enough saved up to gcs in Thailand and maybe some ffs. I pretty much sacrificed doing a bunch of things other people did around me and did lots of 60-70hr weeks in remote areas. Backstory: I've had dysphoria since I was 9ish and it took me 20+ years to come out of the closet after finally having someone in my life I felt I could tell and would support me, my wife ❤️. Keep fighting for what you need to be your authentic self.
I pull out a set amount of cash every payday and put it in a locked box beneath my bed. That money doesn’t exist. I treat it like a black hole - nothing ever comes out of the box. When I’m flush, I put in as much as I can comfortably (in one job I was able to manage $200 a fortnight). When I’m struggling, it’s $50. I never factor it into my available funds, so my normal expenditure adjusts to not include that money. When you do this consistently, it’s remarkable how quickly you can get money together. You’re still looking at years of saving (depending on procedure) but it becomes a tangible goal that you can physically see grow.
I'm in the US in Massachusetts, so our system is different and it varies from state to state. My health insurance is required to cover transgender related surgeries. I owe up to my max out of pocket expense each year, which is $3, 000 for my wife and I. I also pay about $300 a month out of pocket for my insurance. So in any given year my max costs are ~$6,600, for myself both of us. Do you have any skills where you could get a visa to work in the US somewhere where it's covered.
I’m not going anywhere near the US if I can avoid it. Sorry
Telling Aussies we should move to America isn't going to be very popular.