Pink News HRT

[Jazzythegingerninja]

Sorry for the PN story but this popped up on my FB.
Comments as expected "this is discrimination" "WTAF" "surely health professionals can't stop you from having medicine"

Laughable.

How hard is it for women to get HRT! I can't even get bloody antibiotics let alone any hormonal medication when I wasn't producing breast milk.

The sense of entitlement is ridiculous.

It's not HRT. They never had the hormones, so they can't replace them. I use the phrase cross-sex hormones to make it clear that they're taking the wrong hormones.

I'm purposely not including the link to not give them clicks but it also includes this stonker of a bombshell;

"In many instances, these same GPs still prescribe HRT medication to cisgender patients."

Wow.

Women need HRT. The entitlement of these men is off the bloody scale

This issue has been ongoing for some time and well known about since last year, HRT is not exclusive to women and the menopause. It can be used to support men and women.

I don’t know where else to ask this but on the subject of cross sex hormones, what is the current state of play for under-16s?

DD plays a team sport that is strictly sex segregated for girls (some grey areas for girls identifying as NB/male on boys’ teams). Currently in an under-16 bracket. A teammate is apparently taking testosterone so is no longer allowed to play with the girls’ team. But I thought puberty blockers and testosterone were no longer administered by NHS? Would this mean they are being prescribed by the likes of GenderGP? And if so - is there any safeguarding concern here? What we know of the family dynamics is complex and the young person has ASD. I don’t want to involve DD in any way but feel uncomfortable sitting back and watching this play out when the YP appears to me to be very vulnerable.

Of course hrt (oestrogen and progesterone) is exclusive to women because only women produce oestrogen. You can't replace something you never had in the first place.

When men take oestrogen they ard taking cross sex hormones.

HRT is given to men to replace loss of testosterone. Hence why I said it is not exclusive to women.

Dear Christ is this why I had to go to five different pharmacies in our neck of the woods in north London last week before finding one that had my HRT in stock? Because the bloody men are taking it?? Now this really fucks me off

I have been on HRT for years - there have been well documented problems with supply chains for a long time and as such some brands become unavailable and you end up having to switch.

Well they aren't taking the same formulations as women.
I think they only take oestrogen - because they don't need the progesterone obvs. They don't seem to mention that part - esp if the gel made their arms hairy

Surely men are given TRT for low testosterone?

Ah, I see, sorry. I was thinking more of the 'standard' definition of HRT ie oestrogen 🙂

This woman needs HRT to stop her feeling fecking suicidal. My preferred patch is out of stock everywhere and I'm having to cobble together alternatives. Agree that the R in HRT is the key - it is REPLACING the estrogen my ovaries no longer makes. No ovaries = no fucking estrogen in the first place.

I just use estrogen patches because I have had a hysterectomy - progesterone is prescribed to women who do still have their womb to protect against over-thickening of the lining.

So when my Estradot patches come back into stock, I'm in direct competition with any transwomen in my area for a limited supply, even though I am the one with the clinical need? Seems fair.

Men also need oestrogen in the treatment of prostate cancer. Again this can be really hard to get and is a genuine need.

Wasn't aware of that and would agree in that case. I did read the linked article and it seems more of a shared care issue which has been twisted. GPs have a responsibility for what they prescribe (sensibly) and many will not agree to dispense on the say-so of another professional. This is not exclusive to "gender issues" - many people who have had things like ADHD prescribed by a private practioner cannot get their GP to prescribe their medication either.

GPs are sensible to refuse some shared care arrangements for a number of reasons to do with capacity, competence, the need to accept costs of any monitoring and the BMA position.
A lot may also depend on relationships with the organisation or professional requesting the SCA. Some offer proformas that are the output of relevant joint working groups. They clearly lay out all the detail such as the requesters, the follow up review schedule and relevant history.
Individual prescribers like some endocrinologists, ADHD, or GD services (when private) might give scant or no justification for the prescription and effectively just set out some demands for monitoring, dosage, and prescription with no hint of shared responsibility or information about follow-up etc.