when i think abt how fucked up wait times are for trans people getting medical care, i often think about my own experience in comparison. im a cis woman who naturally produces a lot of testosterone.
at 19-20 i went to the GP for sth completely unrelated, he looked at my face 1/
... or rather he looked at my facial hair and basically said I wanted to see a gynecologist to make sure all was normal. i had a gyno appointment within 6 weeks, she ordered bloods and a scan to check for cysts, i saw her back 3 weeks later and she put me on androcur 2/
now, the only issue i have from high T, since i don't have cysts, is bad skin, greasy hair, and a bit of self consciousness about my neck beard that is easily treated with wax. but in under 3 months i had hormonal treatment for a problem i didn't know I even had before! 3/
What androcur does is it's basically a hormone blocker for testosterone.
in cis women it's prescribed alongside the pill bc getting pregnant while on it is bad (or at least they don't know what it'd do)
it's also given to cis men to prevent/help with prostate cancer iirc 4/
a few years later i accompanied a friend to a trans support group & learned that it's the exact hormone blocker they give to trans women at the beginning of their transition (or in some cases the only meds they get bc some endocrinologists refuse to give HRT) 5/