Here’s something I need people to understand about hormone replacement therapy (HRT):
It is already the standard of care for so, so many other conditions. Cis women who undergo menopause often need HRT because their bodies can’t make enough estrogen on their own, and they need it for quality of life in addition to physical survival, ie, you can die without enough. Some cis men need HRT for the same reason as they age, because their bodies don’t make enough of a hormone they need to survive with a quality of life they have a right to expect.
People with diabetes who take insulin are also participating in HRT, because insulin is a hormone and their bodies stop producing it or don’t produce enough, and without insulin, they’ll die.
People with adrenal problems are routinely prescribed hydrocortisone/prednisone/dexamethasone, which is HRT for cortisol, another hormone the body requires to survive. Without sufficient cortisol circulating in your blood, you can be dead in a matter of hours.
None of these hormones do just one thing. Estrogen and testosterone have multiple functions in the body, some of which have nothing to do with reproduction, sex, or gender, and the wrong balance of them can lead to long-term and sometimes fatal complications. Without insulin, your cells can’t access blood sugar (which they need to survive), and you’ll die. There isn’t a single system in your body that cortisol doesn’t touch, and without it, you’ll die.
Needing HRT because of being transgender isn’t different: the body isn’t producing enough of a hormone it needs to survive, and trans people have the right to expect it as a standard of care just like everyone else who needs HRT does. There are even doctors who already specialise in exactly this kind of care; they’re called endocrinologists. This is not some sort of new and untested treatment, humans have been regularly using HRT as a therapy for over 70 years now. It predates the MMR vaccines by at least two decades.
There is nothing different about trans HRT versus any other kind. It’s just as safe as the hormones we give others, because it’s exactly the same hormones. It is heavily supervised by an individual who specialises in the body’s hormones. It’s not dangerous, it’s not untested, and above all, it is not new.
It’s time for trans people to have the same level of access to a standard of care we extend to literally everyone else.
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