Read on Twitter
Pharmacy trauma is an underdiscussed part of the trans experience. Quick thread: https://twitter.com/autogynamelia/status/1289091503160139781
So, once our pharmacist said wide-eyed "so, what are you taking these for anyway???"
Pharmacy requires getting a pill bottle with your f*king deadname on it to help you transition.
Often there's several staff behind the counter talking to each other, big chance of misgendering
Many trans people are poor. Often low-income insurance plans refuse to give people 3 months of pills at a time. You get just one month. So you have to do this sht. Every month.
Want to travel, or be gone for your monthly pickup? Well, you can transfer it to a local pharmacy maybe, and deal with a whole new set of unknowns
Or you can ration out your care, reducing your hrt intake to try to make it last. Feels terrible, but when the deadnaming, misgendering, invasive pharmacy trauma strikes, it's easy to procrastinate next time.
Or you can lie to try get get prescribed a higher dose and get a buffer of extra pills in case something goes wrong and you just can't make it to your monthly dread experience.
Which is great because then your chart doesn't reflect what you are actually taking, it reflects your active resistance against barriers to care.
There are often better versions of HRT that are restricted by insurance because they aren't as cheap, shots insteads of pills, etc (apologize that details are mostly from a transfeminine perspective)
And even what we have was not developed for trans people - spironolactone is used to block testosterone frequently, but is really a men's blood pressure medication that has a useful side effect and many horrible side effects, especially long term
One notorious spiro side effect is it is a diuretic ie you pee a ton, are craving salt, and are dehydrated.
Think about the consequence of forcing trans women to have to pee *more* in a world that doesn't want to let us use the bathroom. Welcome to our lives.
Think about the consequence of forcing trans women to have to pee *more* in a world that doesn't want to let us use the bathroom. Welcome to our lives.
It makes exercise a lot harder. Friends tease me for peeing a lot til I explain.
Dehydration is not necessary to block testosterone! Just an invisible burden we are forced to bear because pharmaceutical and healthcare industry prefers to just pass on some crap solution.
(Spiro has lots of other crap side effects - brain fog - and many folks who are not interested in orchiectomy are now reducing dose to cope. Woohoo dysphoria)
So you are telling me I have to go every month to get misgendered and deadnamed to get HRT that isn't even the ideal form? Yes. Congrats on starting HRT 
Insurance messes up somehow and won't cover it, or don't have any? Enjoy paying tons of money, while being misgendered and deadnamed!
In the UK and some parts of the US it can take years to get access to transition related care. And then this stage! Aahhhhhhh
Trans people can prioritize namechange which can help, and trade notes about if any pharmacist is bad or good, but these are both burdensome workarounds...
Lol and then if we have any non HRT pharmacy needs in the interim, antibiotics, pain pills for an injury, etc. Well, same deadname and misgender city.
Change this. All doctors who have trans patients should for ANY prescription be able to give patients name and pronouns to pharmacy (if safe for patient) and that's what should be used to speak to and about us and label our prescriptions.
Right now healthcare is full of toxic barriers to trans people that impossibly bind us to doubt if the treatment is better than the conditions we are treating.
We trans people need care of all kinds. Poor health outcomes are a product of anti-trans discrimination. (See also "trans broken arm")
Stop it. Do better.
Stop it. Do better.
Also 3 month minimums of HRT always, insurance companies, god damn.
*pops reduced spiro dose from stash of the minty tasting ones, damn those nasty tasting ones*
*pops reduced spiro dose from stash of the minty tasting ones, damn those nasty tasting ones*
We got invited to speak in Europe. We are broke activists who don't get to enjoy life as much as we wish. Someone invited us to spontaneously go to their place in Greece. Had no plans, but also had not enough HRT left. Hard to source abroad. Had to decline.
Disappointed this thread wasn't "quick" like promised at top and actually was longer and more complicated and took more effort than expected?
YEAH! Imagine how trans people at the pharmacy feel!!!!
YEAH! Imagine how trans people at the pharmacy feel!!!!
Too many times sitting in my car full of dread outside the pharmacy, after waiting days and them texting me again and again "DEADNAME your prescription is ready, we are returning it to shelf today"
Eventually learned to always call friends when doing it and play anthemic music in earbuds if no one is available. The effort. The agony. Even now w truename on pills post namechange, still hurts.
Good luck w all yalls transitions who are doing it, with or without HRT. (Many folks do mail order pharmacy to avoid some of this crap).
Rest of the world, fight for us. Help us. Love us. Or at least get out of our way.
Rest of the world, fight for us. Help us. Love us. Or at least get out of our way.
