I’m currently in the process of obtaining the two different mental health referrals my insurance asks for before they will cover my orchiectomy. My doctor set me up with a therapist who can be my first referral, and she’s great; very kind, and understanding of my situation. I am getting antsy though.

At the start of our first session, she asked what my goal in seeing her was, to which I responded politely but bluntly, “I just need a referral for my insurance to get bottom surgery.” She took that graciously, I think. We have now completed two sessions of therapy and I am wondering how many are necessary for her to just give the referral already…

The plan is to ask her in our next session how long before she can give the referral. I haven’t been given an expectation from her so far, which is a little concerning. I don’t want to just get roped into paying for extra sessions.

I had (naively?) hoped back in October that I could start the process and get surgery scheduled for January at the latest, but since I’m still working on the first of two referrals, that seems unlikely.