anarchistcuddles:

comrade-bismuth:

queeranarchism:

testblogdontupvote:

Hot take: the massively anti-DIY-HRT position of mainstream Western trans communities is a sign of the massive privilege of being able to access trans-friendly health care, and people in that position should spend more time thinking about the fact that for many people, it’s “DIY or nothing ever”.

Absolutely. And take a minor step out of the most privileged trans communities, and you’ll also find a LOOOOT of people in Europe and the US doing DIY-HRT because the health care systems in place leave a looooooooot of us stranded with no care, unaffordable care or endless waiting lists and abusive clinics.

SUPPORT DIY-HRT.

Worried about the risk? Well, stop fearmongering and start:

• Organize skill-sharing

  for DIY-HRT

• Organize funds for those that need to buy hormones
• Organize safer access to hormones without a prescription
• Organize medication tests, blood tests and bone scans through GPs and anonymous free clinics
• Protest against gate-keeping

Increase the availability of safer HRT by any means necessary.

Just shut the fuck up with your fearmongering and support trans people doing what they need to survive.

http://transhealth.ucsf.edu/trans?page=guidelines-masculinizing-therapy
a guide on how to perform masculinizing hormone therapy

http://transhealth.ucsf.edu/trans?page=guidelines-feminizing-therapy
and a guide for feminizing hormones

the site also has lots of other info for both binary trans and GNC people

Also like, it sounds scary, and it’s always good to be aware of things if you can, but literally people doing DIY often do the exact same things people going through a prescription and clinic do. It’s the same medications, same blood tests if you can get those done (which you don’t need to do terribly frequently once you’re set up). It’s nothing strange or scary.

But also like, there are places where trans people doing DIY-HRT have access to the same medication and the same tests as trans people in clinics, and there are places where they don’t. There are trans people on dodgy unreliable supplements because that’s the only thing they can get their hands on.

But they’re ALL making their own calculated choice between the results of doing that and the results of not doing that, from their own unique position of trying to survive and have a good life.

Which is, ya know, what people do. There’s no point where we stop supporting transgender people on DIY-HRT because the risks they take are too great. They’re doing that shit because it is the best option from their perspective and we should be celebrating the fact that they’re surviving somehow and doing  what we can to give them access to safer medication and more tests.