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/
so i, like 22yo and on it for years, was talking to trans women in their 40-50s struggling to get even that

like, again, i was on these meds within under 3 months. do you know what the waitlists look like for trans people to have a *first appointment* 6/
that 1) ia often traumatic and 2) rarely actually leads to a prescription before a 2nd or 3rd or 4th appointment? with mostly psychologists and psychiatrists?

for meds prescribed normally to cis men and women without any fuss but for checking your bloods? 7/
so when they say that trans care is oh so different and complicated and ofc you can't just prescribe stuff... it's really just transphobia and double standards. it's meds that are prescibed by GPs and gynos that suddenly need a multidisciplinary team and 3yrs wait time ..
... simply because the patient is trans, and despite studies and protocols that show patient-led care is the best care.

trans care is specialised but it also really, really isn't. I've researched it, I've interviewed trans people abt it, and any way you look at it..
it's made obscure and mystified to justify gatekeeping. any trans person can tell you that of course, but i think as cis people wr don't often grasp just how... regular... some of that care is. cis teens get prescribed blockers for acne. i got it for greasy hair and hairiness
(and part of that last one is wanting to fit cis women into a certain feminine mould, sure, but that's the same system that puts trans people through years of unnecessary pain for mundane treatments they're happy to give us cis in no time. there is no good reason for any of that)
t*rfs in particular i think play on cis womens and cis parents' ignorance. if you think it's all complicated treatments and brand new science you're much more likely to encourage wait times and want to keep teens away from what you're led to believe is experimental treatments.
it's not though. Not to mention trans healthcare has over a century of existence, but the meds used - especially for teens - are well known and safe (as safe as any meds can be) for trans and cis people alike. you can get them easily - unless you're trans.
and gatekeeping one group's access vs another is the literal definition of discrimination.
this thread is kinda blowing up (for my standards), got nothing to sell but support your local trans org!

if you don't know where to start: https://t.co/ZlMmKeqcEi
https://t.co/ulAtsn5Gav
(i will append here that ofc this is a generalisation and my own personal experience and yes there are roadblocks for cis people too, especially if you're a woman, or fat, or Black, or disabled etcetc. but by and large from the replies cis white women have a comparatively easy...
... time getting hormones for all types of conditions from endometriosis to pcos to menopause to thyroid issues. that is the single point i wanted to make. not that there is no discrimination against cis women in medicine (there is) but that it's still much, much easier)

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