I started HRT!!!!!

Whew been a minute since I updated hunh? Well, it’s been busy!

I got approved to start testosterone HRT on September 25th, 2023.

I was surprised. I live in a bible belt, conservative, state and town. The trans health care here is…..the best word I have is mental whiplash. I started with a PCP at Medical Group A. He said he wasn’t qualified for trans or gender care and that no one in practice A was. He then said that there are rotating residents who DO the gender care and he put me on a wait list with them.

I finally got to the appointment after a couple months and it was so easy. They used my chosen name and pronouns. They were respectful. Almost too respectful They tap danced around terminology to try to avoid offending me. It was……strange? Surreal? Twilight Zone? The Matrix? Either way. It felt very formal and professional and I do very much like the resident. It was just a very surreal experience.

But she was satisfied with our appointment and sent out the prescription the same day. She even tried to work with me when I voiced a desire to avoid injections if possible, but that I would take them if no other option existed. She tried hard to make the gel work, but in the end we went with the injections.

Then the next stage of trouble began. My normal pharmacy was out of the medication. It’s a controlled substance in my state.

So I called walmart pharmacy, but they were out of stock too. So was CVS, but at least they offered to order it if I filed it with them. I called a few other local pharmacies and FINALLY found one with the medication in stock. But everyone was closing so I had to wait until the next day to do the transfer.

I wake up the next morning and call to make the transfer, but because its a controlled substance, and I hadn’t filled it before, they couldn’t transfer it. My doctor would have to send it to the new pharmacy. So I made those phone calls and got that all set up.

The next day it’s FINALLY ready for pick up but my insurance won’t cover it at this pharmacy. They run it on a discount card and get the price down to approx. $40 USD.

As a low income family we panicked briefly about how to afford the medication. We ended up having to charge it to our credit card. But we got it!

And on 9/27/2023 at noon I did my first self injection of Testosterone!

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I hope to do weekly check in’s on my social media like tiktok and all of my blogs. The journey continues. Stay queer my friends.

Nyx [They/He/She]