Donate to Katy L. Wood's Top Surgery Journey

Hello! I'm Katy L. Wood, an author and artist with a dayjob in wildland fire dispatch, and I need help funding my top surgery/breast reduction.

I hit puberty very young, and have had a very large chest since I was quite young because of that. It has always caused me problems, but it has finally gotten to the point where it is untenable. I can't comfortably do the things I want to do like high intensity workouts, wildland firefighting, and even sleeping. I have never been able to wear any bra without being in an immense amount of pain and have had to give up on wearing them entirely unless I have no other choice, something I know is seen as unprofessional/unkempt by many people. The lack of ability to workout without my chest feeling like it is about to tear off my body is starting to effect my health as well. No sportsbra is enough to both contain the problem and allow me to breathe well enough to do more high intensity workouts.

I made the decision to finally pursue surgery for the issue about two years ago, but have had to put it off due to moving across the state and going back to college, but now that I'm a little more settled it's time to just get this done. I am getting a reduction in general for all of the aforementioned reasons, but I have chosen to go completely flat for gender related reasons. I am not trans, but I am certainly not cis either and having any sort of noticeable breasts just does not align with how I want to present.

I have found a great surgeon here in Colorado, but he is a little more on the expensive side. The total quote for my surgery (including all follow up appointments, anesthesia, post-surgery garments, and the surgery itself) is just under $15,000. I pursued several different options, but every other surgeon I talked to required a year of therapy to get an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria (and so did all insurance covered options), and I am not willing to do that. I am not dysphoric, I honestly could live with my chest as it is from a gender perspective, it's just the functionality of it and the amount of pain it causes that is making me finally pull the trigger to get this done. The only gender related part is how much I want taken away because if I'm doing it, I may as well do it right.

Additionally, if my quote for surgery was, say, $10,000, but I had to have a year of therapy on top of that, plus pay health insurance premiums for a whole year to get that therapy, it'd probably come out to about the same cost if not MORE expensive. I figure it's quicker, easier, and cheaper to just get it done all in one go and not waste my time (or the time of a therapist with clients that actually need their services).

I have been working a TON of overtime this summer to try and save up as much as I can towards this surgery (150ish hours last month, and about 45 so far this month), but that won't get me all the way. I'm trying to get about $17000 total saved up to cover not only the surgery but post-surgery meds, transportation to and from the surgery, and some other general post-surgery comforts like a lot of easy-make food, food deliveries, pet sitting while I'm gone, etc.. Time off work thankfully shouldn't be an issue.

So yeah! If you're willing to help out, I super appreciate it.