Edit: Seeing
Seriously: Where the hell do people get HRT in like 3 months or so? Here it takes around 10-12 months waiting on a list to get HRT.
diy hrt our beloved :3
OK, that’s devinetively an option. What I was talking about is people getting HRT by a doctor in like no time.
Alright, let’s talk.
Something can be the last word about its subject. It’s the last word, the words are finite about it.
De-finite-ly.
And now you’ll always spell that one word right!
Ah ok. Im German and in german it means devinitiv, so one of the goold ol “false friends” words.
Yup, German is like that and English is weird and inconsistent. It’s my second as well.
Definitiely (got it right this time) has its upside and downsides.
informed consent was a thing here in the US… pretty sure its getting gutted tho
My therapist gave me an indication after our first session, I went to the doc with it, some blood testing and voila. Should work for you as well, I can send you a pm with the contact.
I already have a therapist that’s writing an indication. Main Problem is, that the waiting list for the endocrinologists in my area is quite long. Would appreciate if you would send me the contact.
It really depends on where you are. In the US it’s remarkably easy if you’re an adult. Basically find a doctor that does informed consent and wait the 1-3 months for an appointment. It’s one of the few things we do well when it comes to healthcare.
And if you don’t have a doctor with informed consent like I did, it’ll probably take about 3 months of therapy, but your wait list time can be during that so it can easily be 4 months. That’s how it was for me 10 years ago
Seriously, Europe needs better trans healthcare. We have family medicine doctors and general practitioners who specialize in serving the queer community’s health needs and they will prescribe hormones without much fuss
I started out with telehealth which let me begin immediately (folx health, US only). I had to sign up on a website, then book a 30 minute therapist meeting on their website, which was available within a week. After the 30 minute session, they shipped the meds the next day and it arrived in 4 days.
Here’s resources on finding telehealth: https://diyhrt.info/resources/telehealth/
I also used US based (still do) telehealth. I use Queermed, they are based in my state. I originally used their monthly membership but now pay per visit.
Got my prescription after the first appointment. Love the NP that handles my care.
Informed consent and Planned Parenthood in the US. I scheduled an appointment about a week out from when I called and left with a prescription. This was almost 6 years ago, and it’s handled by my primary care doctor now, but that was the quick route to get started!
We also have a lot of queer health clinics that were founded in response to the AIDS epidemic and have since added stuff like hrt to the list of services. The main one in ohio even does dentistry now.
I did the same. I talked with my primary care doctor first and was put on a 6 months wait list for the endocrinologist. While waiting, I made an appointment with PP for about 2 months out (ours are booked far in advance unless it’s urgent like an abortion or STI testing) but got it within a few days of meeting with the PP doctor. Transferred to my Endo once they were available.
In the US informed consent is an option in many places, so you can get HRT in days.
Thats wild. How does this work (not an option for me since im not from the us, just curious)?
I made a call to planned parenthood.
Within two weeks I had an appointment.
I spoke with an endo for like 20 minutes about how I was feeling about my gender, and then I walked out with a prescription I was able to pick up from my pharmacy like 3-4 hours later.
Most of the wait is just normal wait time for a doctors office appointment.
Actually if anything, my dentist is usually way more backed up than that.
Thats wild
Assuming 18 years old: You go to doctor (hopefully), they pull out a questionnaire and you talk about gender for a few minutes, warn you about the side effects of medicine, give you starting dose prescription which should give you psychological effects but not too many physical effects, tell you to get blood work before next appointment in a few months.
Next appointment they review if the medicine had an effect in your blood, ask if you’ve noticed any changes, double ask if you have any concerns about the changes, then hopefully they start getting serious about getting your blood results to where they should be.
As @magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone states, other doctors will be more backed up and most of the wait time should be in the waiting room.
Yep, and it should be noted that this is the model recommended by experts. Rates of regret are still extremely low in America. All the other hoops they make people jump through are not reasonable.
In some countries (the UK for example) it can even take 5 to 10 years! Took 3.5 for me, though that’s a better country. I know people who got it in 2 months tho.
What the actual fuck? I feel sorry for you having to got though this
Oh, it’s okay now, but still, better late than never I guess.
I considered DIY but it sounded scary.
But apparently, DIY is really just “get HRT w/o prescription”. It doesn’t substantially differ. If you have a GP you trust and aren’t in a transphobic country, then contacting them, and having blood jabs every now and then in the first year may be good to check on levels.
A recommendation to anyone doubting and thinking about transitioning thru HRT, but not being sure yet:
Just sign up already, it’ll take long and by the time you know, the wait will be shorter.
I’m in the U.S.
After some therapy I called up my primary care physician (PCP), told my nurse I have gender dysphoria and would like a referral to an endrocrinologist, and then gave the information about the endo so they could send over the referral.
Then the endo called me and I made an appointment, the first available was 3 months away. The endo thought it was obvious I should be on estrogen and sent the prescription in immediately, and I was able to pick up the estrogen that day.
Sometimes the psychologist can send the referral rather than the PCP, but my PCP was happy to send it (I got lucky, my PCP was randomly trans-affirming and turns out, unknown to me, they had other trans patients). So one way this can get bogged down is if your psychologist or PCP isn’t willing to send a referral to an endo, or if you’re relying on the PCP for the HRT, they just won’t write you the Rx.
Another way this can get bogged down is if the wait time to see the endo is longer, or if the endo decides they aren’t sure they should prescribe you the HRT.
This is why it’s good to talk to the local trans community to know which therapists, PCPs, and endos to see. If the community doesn’t know, sometimes there are resources and directories collected online - I found my endo through the Trans in the South guide.
DIY or semi DIY via a business.
Almost always cheaper too. And in terms of quality think breaking bad where everything is like 97% correct and most of the issues is that it’s 3% less potent than advertised.
Informed consent from doctors that arent shit. Sadly those are a bit rarer.
Having to wait for only 1 year would have been amazing
I have to wait for at least 3 years to begin the process of trying to get HRT(4 and a half years after discovering i was trans)
i wan. i need. now.
When I called my doctor to get an appointment for HRT they said their next available was in 2 days, insanely quick.
Weil i was living as a woman for about a year bevor even starting to try and get hrt, because I wanted to be sure that this was the right thing for me… Then the secret was just finding the right doctors to write the referral, by asking other trans people where they got theirs, then it went quite fast… What part of Germany are you from btw?
Middle of Germany. The endocrinologists that are present here have waiting lists of about 10-12 months as I heard.
Ah damn, I’m in southern Bavaria and had luck getting an appointment in half that time. Don’t forget you also need an “Indikationsscheiben” from a psychologist for getting hormone treatment.
But anyway, hormones are not everything and there are many steps on the way that you can do yourself like learning makeup und amassing a female wardrobe and most importantly finding the courage to open yourself up to the world and just being yourself, something unfortunately you have to do yourself. Find allies, especially female ones because they always sort out clothes from time to time, almost my whole wardrobe is second hand 😄
I know. I havent even gotten to writing to the next endocrinologist for getting on their list. I have my second appointment (out of three) for getting an Indication on Monday. Learning makeup is also something I started doing today (looks quite good tbh). My warderobe does contain some skirts, even though I havent gotten the courge to go out with one that often.
I’d assume it depends on where you live but here it took me a month and half for a first appointment with a GP, 3 months to go to a hospital for a fertility preservation (idk if that’s the word in English) and then 2 weeks later I got my gel :3
From what I heard everyone suggests you get on the waiting list, before its usually longer then getting a therapist (usually getting into therapy takes about 6 months or longer)
Oh yeah having to deal with a therapist will take longer for sure. It’s thankfully not required here anymore but it used to be the case
Here its still needed, but for what I hear its the waaiting time to get an appointment that makes the whole process so long.
Talk to Germans about this, but back in the day (10 years ago) when I started hormones America was just starting our informed consent thing and most doctors weren’t on board with it yet, some people would do DIY (or even just inform that they would) then go to the doctor and say that they’re already on hormones and happy with it, but would like to switch to doctor provided. It was always a risky move, but I remember hearing it worked from time to time
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Had a similar experience in Austria (even tho people say that it’s easier here). Pretty much took me a year too and I optimized the hell out if the waiting times with stuff like writing several doctors at once and seeing who would give me the fastest appointment.
I still have to go to Germany soon… The waiting time for bottom surgery in Austria is 5-6 years…
