Help Daphne Recoup Gender Affirming Medical Expenses

In August of 2024, Daphne felt a sharp stabbing pain in her left breast. She had the amazing opportunity to receive a gender affirming breast surgery in May of 2023. Since then, she had taken meticulous care of her body, remaining vigilant of any potential issue with her implants. As a working artist on an animated TV show, she would carefully stretch her arm and chest muscles to minimize any strain on her body. This only added to the shock when she looked down and noticed her implant had been significantly displaced, creating an odd “B” shaped lump in her breast and a soft clicking sound when pressed.

A few emergency calls later, and her surgeon had a theory - a muscle spasm displaced her implant. Not a life threatening event, thank goodness, but she would need a revision surgery. The soonest date they could schedule her for was that March - seven months later.

After a long wait, we got an email several days before the surgery. Because it was a revision, and not an initial surgery, it does not count as gender affirming. Her insurance rejected the claim. The TV project Daphne was working on was wrapping up soon, and she would be unable to find a new job for quite a bit. After some debating on the best options, Daphne was able to scrape together enough to pay for the surgery out of pocket - thanks to several generous friends and family who covered as much as they could.

Between the surgery and the state of the workforce, Daphne and I haven't been able to find jobs since. A lot of the money spent on the surgery was saved up specifically to sustain us financially during this tight time. A lot of our energy has gone to appealing the insurance denial. If it goes through, she'll be able to get a lot of the money spent back. It can take six months to a year to hear back from the insurance company once the appeal is received.

She is hoping to recoup these costs to keep us afloat financially while we look for employment and await the response of the insurance company. If you feel moved to donate, please make sure we have your name so if we are approved for the appeal, we can ensure you are reimbursed!

Thank you so much for your time and energy reading Daphne's story.