Amrita Sarkar, Advisor: Transgender Wellbeing & Advocacy, India HIV/AIDS Alliance, speaks on ‘Affirmative experiences and its impact on trans health: Not all doctors are bad doctors’ (edited, in the speakers words):

I started my transition process in 2014, starting with hormones, and was considering whether or not I should go for top and bottom surgeries. The affirmation process was helped by the psychologist, who helped with the medical certificates.

At that time, it was necessary to get two medical certificates, and two psychologists helped me a lot.

It was so easy because they helped me understand that I have to make the decisions – when should I get my affirmative surgeries, and how will the affirmation processes affect my life? And do I have the capacity to do that?

Because many people might get gender-affirming healthcare without enough preparation, which becomes very problematic and traumatic.

I was associated with my community, I worked with my community for a long time, I knew the steps I needed to follow. So I took some time actually, so that if I have to go into surgery, I knew that these are the steps I would follow one after the other. After getting the medical certificates, I got my surgery, and my surgeon was really very friendly.

So I had a very nice experience. My healthcare providers helped me access the process from my viewpoints so that the decisions were mine to make.