Hey! Happy pride everyone! Who wants to know how much it costs to become a cute anime girl?
I’m coming up on two years since I started my transition, and I have SRS scheduled for just over the anniversary mark. Just for fun I tallied up everything I’ve spent so far on medical transition. This includes estimates for the next few months, up to and including surgery. All prices are in Japanese Yen.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HRT (DIY) | 58,180 | Estrogen gel |
| GID diagnosis | 22,670 | Required for prescription HRT |
| HRT (prescription) | 353,280 | |
| Laser hair removal | 65,880 | 6 sessions, face |
| Name change | 800 | I’m a Japanese citizen so I had to apply to the courts here |
| Electrolysis | 1,499,080 | ~12 hrs prep for SRS and ~12 hrs face |
| SRS approval | 48,990 | Not fun |
| SRS consult | 33,860 | inc. estimates for blood work |
| SRS | 2,090,000 | PIV; Japanese hospital |
| Total | 4,172,740 |
I think I’m pretty much done with electrolysis, although I expect there will be a long tail tidying up. None of this is covered by insurance (with a long and stupid footnote I can go into another time), but it is at least tax deductible. Going forward, HRT will cost about ¥8,000 per month, reduced by 70% once I can change my legal gender and can start using insurance.
Notably this does not include:
- travel costs (substantial in my case since I live way out in the countryside)
- clothes
- cosmetics
- hitting up other girls in lesbian bars
Of course how much it costs depends a lot on what route you choose to take, so this is very much only a guideline! Let me know if you have any questions <3
I’d have thought Korea might well be cheaper than here, although I haven’t checked. There are just so few places offering it and they’re always fully booked so they just keep on raising the price.
As far as I can tell after some intensive web-searching, the laser is relatively inexpensive, but there are virtually no electrolysis places that I can find.
I wouldn’t be so opposed to laser, but my genetics have screwed me with deeply rooted, ultra thick, dense hair, so laser is excruciating in order for it to work. Like, if it’s tolerable, I see zero results. The only time it’s worked is when I was in so much pain, I literally filled the little goggles they give with tears and was like dissociating on the table. Even after half a dozen sessions of that, I’ve got like easily 3 or 4 times more than that to go, so I’d rather just jump to electrolysis so that there’s measurable progress each time at least.
That sounds miserable about the heavy-booking, though. Maybe I’ll just keep my eyes open for openings and save a bit of money in the meantime. 😭