5 ms·

You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even

You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even though hormone replacement therapy can lead to all kinds of problems? Is this normal?

wtfwhateven 1y ago
Where on earth are you getting this idea from?
- comrade1234 1y ago
  From the first few paragraphs of the article? > and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy with a paper bag filled with repurposed menopause medication and then no mention after of monitoring of health effects?
  - roughly 1y ago
    So, the beginning of that sentence is: > I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops
    - comrade1234 1y ago
      Bureaucracy != medicine
      - protocolture 1y ago
        Medicine does however = bureaucracy.
      - wtfwhateven 1y ago
        Informed consent is absolutely medicine and absolutely includes advice from a doctor
cobertos 1y ago
No. This is incorrect. OP explicitly mentions "jumping through bureaucratic hoops" > Not long after, I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops, and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy
- comrade1234 1y ago
  No mention of a doctor or monitoring. I don't live in the USA - bureaucratic hoops sounds like what I go through to get my id renewed.
  - ghushn3 1y ago
    I believe it's implied. Typically the bureaucratic hoops involve 1-2 mental health professionals writing letters in support, potentially 0-2 years "living as the gender" before they will write those letters, meetings with your doctor, bloodwork for baseline hormone levels (sometimes multiple times), and then finally you might get a scrip. But if you encounter someone along the way who doesn't want to co-operate, you might need to redo those steps. It's really rather difficult, depending on where you are.
  - cube_flipper 1y ago
    I was living maybe ten minutes' walk from the local testing clinic at the time so it was actually pretty easy to monitor my blood work.
cthalupa 1y ago
Wait until you hear about how easy it is to get testosterone.
- yuriks 1y ago
  Ironically, testosterone in theory is harder to get. Since it is widely used for sports doping, it's considered an anabolic steroid, and is a scheduled substance in the US, and so has a bit more oversight to prescribe and dispense. (But I imagine there's probably also a larger black market for it for the same reasons.)
  - cthalupa 1y ago
    There are a billion TRT clinics that will prescribe you testosterone with basically zero oversight and at dosages that are supraphysiological. And yes, the black market is huge - anyone with google and the ability to purchase crypto can get it easily delivered, either domestically, or from china.
    - PartiallyTyped 1y ago
      Not only TRT but also Tren and other anabolic steroids that work in tandem with Testosterone to boost lean mass and reduce fat.
runeblaze 1y ago
My opinion is that at least (safe, not spiro) anti-androgens should be able to be bought OTC. If some people want to place blockers on themselves they should be allowed to. I mean if you don't allow them to they DIY
foxmoder 1y ago
This isn't true. (It should be, in my opinion--I don't believe in third parties with no stake making forced decisions for you for what can and can't enter your body--but as someone for whom this is lived experience, you can't do this, especially not at a Walgreens and not without getting LFTs and hormone levels done regularly.)
s5300 1y ago
>> You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even though hormone replacement therapy can lead to all kinds of problems? Is this normal? Go chug a quarter of a McBurgerStan sized bottle of Tylenol available at near every cornerstore in our country and you’ll literally fucking die a harrowing death. I do not even mildly see your point. Quite frankly those against open access to all medicine need to die. The harm a lack of accessibility causes to society at large is incalculable, because the disabled go unseen rotting away in their homes – if they’re so lucky to even have that.

wtfwhateven 1y ago

Where on earth are you getting this idea from?

comrade1234 1y ago
From the first few paragraphs of the article? > and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy with a paper bag filled with repurposed menopause medication and then no mention after of monitoring of health effects?
- roughly 1y ago
  So, the beginning of that sentence is: > I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops
  - comrade1234 1y ago
    Bureaucracy != medicine
    - protocolture 1y ago
      Medicine does however = bureaucracy.
    - wtfwhateven 1y ago
      Informed consent is absolutely medicine and absolutely includes advice from a doctor

cobertos 1y ago

No. This is incorrect. OP explicitly mentions "jumping through bureaucratic hoops" > Not long after, I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops, and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy

comrade1234 1y ago
No mention of a doctor or monitoring. I don't live in the USA - bureaucratic hoops sounds like what I go through to get my id renewed.
- ghushn3 1y ago
  I believe it's implied. Typically the bureaucratic hoops involve 1-2 mental health professionals writing letters in support, potentially 0-2 years "living as the gender" before they will write those letters, meetings with your doctor, bloodwork for baseline hormone levels (sometimes multiple times), and then finally you might get a scrip. But if you encounter someone along the way who doesn't want to co-operate, you might need to redo those steps. It's really rather difficult, depending on where you are.
- cube_flipper 1y ago
  I was living maybe ten minutes' walk from the local testing clinic at the time so it was actually pretty easy to monitor my blood work.

cthalupa 1y ago

Wait until you hear about how easy it is to get testosterone.

yuriks 1y ago
Ironically, testosterone in theory is harder to get. Since it is widely used for sports doping, it's considered an anabolic steroid, and is a scheduled substance in the US, and so has a bit more oversight to prescribe and dispense. (But I imagine there's probably also a larger black market for it for the same reasons.)
- cthalupa 1y ago
  There are a billion TRT clinics that will prescribe you testosterone with basically zero oversight and at dosages that are supraphysiological. And yes, the black market is huge - anyone with google and the ability to purchase crypto can get it easily delivered, either domestically, or from china.
  - PartiallyTyped 1y ago
    Not only TRT but also Tren and other anabolic steroids that work in tandem with Testosterone to boost lean mass and reduce fat.

runeblaze 1y ago

My opinion is that at least (safe, not spiro) anti-androgens should be able to be bought OTC. If some people want to place blockers on themselves they should be allowed to. I mean if you don't allow them to they DIY

foxmoder 1y ago

This isn't true. (It should be, in my opinion--I don't believe in third parties with no stake making forced decisions for you for what can and can't enter your body--but as someone for whom this is lived experience, you can't do this, especially not at a Walgreens and not without getting LFTs and hormone levels done regularly.)

s5300 1y ago

>> You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even though hormone replacement therapy can lead to all kinds of problems? Is this normal? Go chug a quarter of a McBurgerStan sized bottle of Tylenol available at near every cornerstore in our country and you’ll literally fucking die a harrowing death. I do not even mildly see your point. Quite frankly those against open access to all medicine need to die. The harm a lack of accessibility causes to society at large is incalculable, because the disabled go unseen rotting away in their homes – if they’re so lucky to even have that.