> I was not aware that HRT is a lifelong commitment. To provide a bit of nuance: this is only true if you get surgery that removes your body's ability to produ

> I was not aware that HRT is a lifelong commitment. To provide a bit of nuance: this is only true if you get surgery that removes your body's ability to produce sex hormones. Every human needs _some_ sex hormones to prevent osteoporosis; that's why non-transgender people sometimes have to take hormones (and, in fact, more non-trans women take estrogen than trans people do!) If someone starts HRT and decides that they hate it, it's generally possible to just... stop. There are some more permanent effects, but they take a while to develop. > Is there any concern that a major pharmaceutical company is essentially charging a lifetime subscription for you to be who you identify as? This is a super interesting question! The obvious solution is that socialized medicine would completely obviate the problem, but that's a huge, sweeping solution, has its own issues, and is unlikely to happen. My perspective is that estrogen, in particular, is really quite cheap. Compared to, for instance, insulin, it's a very safe, abundant, and inexpensive maintenance drug. Testosterone is also pretty cheap, but is harder to access because it's more heavily controlled. In my opinion, it only really becomes a problem when politicians decide to try and remove these drugs from insurance coverage, which we've seen in several places in the United States.