Donation protected
I am a board-certified family practice MD. I have worked with the transgender and gender non-conforming community for 20 of the 30 years I've been in practice. My gender-variant patients range from age 5 to 85.
In 2015, I published 'Where's MY Book?' A Guide for Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming Youth, Their Parents & Everyone Else. Through Amazon and at conferences, this book sells one-by-one all over the country, bringing factual information and reassurance to a community at risk (half of trans folks under 24 have had a suicide attempt). I personally funded this beautiful book. Starting with 1500 copies, we're now down to 50, and I need to print more (www.LindaGromkoMD.com).
I am now working on an adult book: A Practical Guide for Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming Adults. This book will feature more detailed information about gender affirming surgeries, hormones, sexuality, and "presentation." I have found what I believe to be the best medical illustrations available to clarify sexual reassignment surgeries. I devote a full section to "Surviving & Thriving" - day-to-day tips that help get people through. These practical pointers come from the real experts: trans people in my practice, surgeons and others who work directly with the gender non-conforming community. As with the youth book, A Practical Guide will be sprinkled with the whimsical paintings of Jacqui Beck from her exhibit, Gender Personal (www.JacquiBeck.com).
Why do I, a physician, need money to publish? I am a solo practitioner with 3 excellent ARNPs and a total staff of 15. It's enormously expensive to operate a small clinic. Plus we just expanded our practice to include aesthetic services - laser and electrolysis hair removal. There's simply no money for a book right now - yet I'm reminded daily that this book needs to be born.
I am also climbing out of a medical bankruptcy - related to the costs of my late husband's kidney failure (I did home dialysis for him for three years before he died). These are not complaints - just facts. The money I raise will go toward the considerable expenses of editing, printing, indexing, and promotions, and to reprint the youth book. I draw no pay from writing either book; they are gifts, true labors of love. I intend to publish the adult book in early 2020.
Please join me in this project. All contributors will receive a Kindle edition of the new book, and contributors of $200 or more will receive one of the first paperback copies hot off the press. A print of a Jacqui Beck painting from the Gender Personal project (www.genderpersonal.org) will go to each of the first four donors of over $500. All donors will be invited to a Pie Party when the book is completed.
I am most grateful for all of the rich life experiences I have had - and want these books to be a loving gift for this extraordinary community.
Respectfully,
Linda Gromko MD
