Should I ask to delay my first appointment for top surgery?

TL;DR: I have my first appointment with top surgery team on Dec 5th but a recent blood test showed my prolactin to be really high. 99.9% chance it’s a result of binding, but very slim could also be a result of a tumour, and can’t get appt for repeat blood test until 2 weeks after first appointment with surgical team. Should I ask to delay surgery appt until after repeat blood test as to minimise the risk of being discharged?

Hey everyone, I’ve only ever made a handful of Reddit posts before, so I’m sorry if this reads weird.

I had an appointment with my GIC in the beginning of October for a surgery assessment, hoping to be referred to the team in Manchester. The doctor I spoke to was a little reluctant at first because I hadn’t been on testosterone consistently for 12 months - I’ve been told conflicting info on this, some say surgeons insist on it, others say it’s entirely up to the patient - but they went ahead with the referral when I explained that top surgery is the most important gender affirming care for me.

I got a text a couple of weeks ago confirming that my referral had been accepted, and my first virtual appointment with them would be on December 5th. Genuinely over the moon about this.

However. I had a blood test done on the 7th of November prior to a T injection (which was supposed to be on Nov 10th but I had to reschedule to Nov 20th). I got a text from the GIC a couple of days before the injection saying they had booked a virtual appt on Nov 24th for me to speak to one of the nurses regarding my blood test. Essentially, everything was fine except for my prolactin, which came back really high. In June my prolactin levels were approx. 160 (healthy range being approx. 100-400), my results from Nov 7th came back at 730ish. The nurse said that in the 5 years they’ve worked at the clinic, every time someone’s prolactin came back high, it was a result of binding, and that after a week of not binding and a repeat blood test the results always came back fine. They did also explain however that if I got a repeat test and it still came back high after not binding for a week, it could be the result of a tumour on the pituitary gland - they did stress that this was very very very unlikely, but a possibility regardless.

My issue is, the soonest I could get an appointment for a repeat blood test wasn’t until December 16th, nearly 2 weeks after my first scheduled appointment with the Manchester surgery team. While I’m fairly positive that my repeat blood test will come back fine, I’m concerned that the surgeon in my first surgery appointment will want to wait for these test results before going any further - which I can understand, a potential tumour is a big issue lol - and discharge me back to the GIC, and I’d then need to be referred again.

I first went to the my GP about gender incongruence when I was 16. I’m now 25. Surgery is finally at my fingertips after 10 years, and I just don’t want it to be ripped out of my hands when I’m so so close. The current time from first appointment to surgery in Manchester seems at the moment between 2-3 months. I just dread the idea that the surgeon says “let’s wait for results before we go any further” and then 2 weeks later the test results come back and I’m absolutely fine and having to go through the referral process again when I could have already had the surgery by then.

Would it be wise to contact the surgery team in Manchester and ask for my first appointment to be delayed by a week or two after my blood test, to give enough time for the results to come back? I don’t want to come across as rude to the team and disrespectful of their time by making it seem like they should be working around my schedule, or alternatively it seeming like I’m actually not that fussed about getting the surgery if I’m willing to delay an appointment by 3-4 weeks. Any advice appreciated :’(

Posted Dec 1, 2025, 4:03 AM UTC

74
Loading comments…