Edwin's Top Surgery Fund
Donation protected
UPDATE 09/15/2017
I've had an intake appointment at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center here in New Hampshire, and I have decided to see a local surgeon instead. As a result, I've edited my goal as I will no longer have to worry about booking flights or hotels. Check out the "updates" tab for new info!
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Hi! My name is Edwin, and I'm a 21-year-old trans man from New Hampshire. I'm a senior at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where I'm an illustration major and work mostly in the horror genre. I hope to, in the future, do concept art for video games, or design one myself. Here's some of my art:
Since a very young age, I've dealt with gender dysphoria. Treatment for this is usually hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and eventually surgical augemntations if the dysphoria is severe. I came out as trans when I was 17 and was able to start HRT last summer. Most insurances will approve and cover surgeries after a year on testosterone for transmen (or estrogen for transwomen), however my insurance will not be covering it in its entirety. Although I still need to hear from the insurance and the surgeon I'm looking at for a final price, even with coverage the price will be pretty steep.
I have been looking into Dr Charles Garramone in Davie, Florida. He specializes in top surgery for trans men and has an incredibly high satisfaction rate. He also offers a procedure called ManSculpture®, in which the hips, abdomen, and thighs are reduced to create a more masculine silhouette. This is done at the same time as top surgery, in which the breasts and excess skin are removed, and the nipples are grafted to the outer side of the chest, where they would be on someone assigned male at birth.
Flying to Florida will be about $150 both ways per person; both me and a family member will be going down, as the surgeon requires I don't be alone for the first 24 hours after the surgery (and I'd rather not be alone for the whole week anyways). A hotel for the week, as advertised on the website, will be $129 a night, though the surgeon's site says they offer a discount for his patients so when I am scheduleing my visit I will look into that. Dr. Garramone's surgical fee for the top surgery is $6,500, the hospital's fees are $1,625, and the fee for ManSculpture® is $4,000. Additional fees I will likely get stuck with will include preop labwork, prescriptions, pathology (where all of my removed breast tissue will be sent for analysis), and postop compression garments. This puts my total, without insurance or outside help, at $13,457. Again, not including the additional fees I just mentioned. My goal for this fundraiser is hoping that my insurance will cover around 80% of the surgical and hospital costs.
To a lot of people, this may seem like an unecessary surgery, but I assure you it's not. Dysphoria physically hurts. I have good binders that I wear to flatten my chest under clothes, but binders will not help when I am showering or swimming. At the end of the day, chest binding is a temporary solution, and I'm looking to correct this problem permanently. I have been living with this since I was a child, and now that the opportunity has arisen that my insurance will cover at least part of it, I can't afford to wait.
I've had an intake appointment at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center here in New Hampshire, and I have decided to see a local surgeon instead. As a result, I've edited my goal as I will no longer have to worry about booking flights or hotels. Check out the "updates" tab for new info!
-----------------------------
Hi! My name is Edwin, and I'm a 21-year-old trans man from New Hampshire. I'm a senior at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where I'm an illustration major and work mostly in the horror genre. I hope to, in the future, do concept art for video games, or design one myself. Here's some of my art:
Since a very young age, I've dealt with gender dysphoria. Treatment for this is usually hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and eventually surgical augemntations if the dysphoria is severe. I came out as trans when I was 17 and was able to start HRT last summer. Most insurances will approve and cover surgeries after a year on testosterone for transmen (or estrogen for transwomen), however my insurance will not be covering it in its entirety. Although I still need to hear from the insurance and the surgeon I'm looking at for a final price, even with coverage the price will be pretty steep.
I have been looking into Dr Charles Garramone in Davie, Florida. He specializes in top surgery for trans men and has an incredibly high satisfaction rate. He also offers a procedure called ManSculpture®, in which the hips, abdomen, and thighs are reduced to create a more masculine silhouette. This is done at the same time as top surgery, in which the breasts and excess skin are removed, and the nipples are grafted to the outer side of the chest, where they would be on someone assigned male at birth.
Flying to Florida will be about $150 both ways per person; both me and a family member will be going down, as the surgeon requires I don't be alone for the first 24 hours after the surgery (and I'd rather not be alone for the whole week anyways). A hotel for the week, as advertised on the website, will be $129 a night, though the surgeon's site says they offer a discount for his patients so when I am scheduleing my visit I will look into that. Dr. Garramone's surgical fee for the top surgery is $6,500, the hospital's fees are $1,625, and the fee for ManSculpture® is $4,000. Additional fees I will likely get stuck with will include preop labwork, prescriptions, pathology (where all of my removed breast tissue will be sent for analysis), and postop compression garments. This puts my total, without insurance or outside help, at $13,457. Again, not including the additional fees I just mentioned. My goal for this fundraiser is hoping that my insurance will cover around 80% of the surgical and hospital costs.
To a lot of people, this may seem like an unecessary surgery, but I assure you it's not. Dysphoria physically hurts. I have good binders that I wear to flatten my chest under clothes, but binders will not help when I am showering or swimming. At the end of the day, chest binding is a temporary solution, and I'm looking to correct this problem permanently. I have been living with this since I was a child, and now that the opportunity has arisen that my insurance will cover at least part of it, I can't afford to wait.
Organizer
Edwin Jollimore
Organizer
Londonderry, NH