On may 5th i have my first appointment with the endocrinologist to start HRT. how does the process go? How long does it take before i get on testosterone? How many appointments? What will happen during my first appointment? I would really appreciate any information and advice on these first few appointments. (the nurse did tell me that after the first ill need a ton os bloodwork and it wont be too long after that beforr my first shot so i know its not like a yesr later)
Each endocrinologist is different, but it won't be a year after your appointment before you start. When I had my first appointment, they took a lot of blood to make sure my liver enzymes and cholesterol were not too high and I wasn't anemic or had an infection. I think it was a couple weeks after that that I went in for my first injection. One you start with the endocrinologist, things will progress faster than you think.
sam1234
I did not go to an endocrinologist per se. but my doctor at planned parenthood just asked me a bunch of questions about myself. and then order up some blood work to make sure I am healthy enough to go on T. Then he told me that he wanted to see my back after 3 months on T to check more bloodwork and then maybe backing it to blood work every 6 months if everything is going okay.
Does the Endo know you are seeing them for testosterone? chances are if he knows you will get it because they are not therapists......did he ask for a therapist letter?
If not he probably operates on informed consent.....that is how i got my testosterone i did not need a therapists letter
If he knows u are seeing him for HRT and did NOT ask for a therapist letter chances are you will get your prescription when u see him
He will go over with you all the risks involved, side effects and changes you will go through and the ones that are not reversible
Quote from: boywonder159 on April 02, 2015, 09:32:07 PM
On may 5th i have my first appointment with the endocrinologist to start HRT. how does the process go? How long does it take before i get on testosterone? How many appointments? What will happen during my first appointment? I would really appreciate any information and advice on these first few appointments. (the nurse did tell me that after the first ill need a ton os bloodwork and it wont be too long after that beforr my first shot so i know its not like a yesr later)
Sorry I missed this. My GP administers my testosterone via informed consent, but I'd wager a guess that your first appointment will be similar to mine.
- Get there, sign in, fill out any starter forms they have for new patients, wait.
- Get called back, have vitals taken (height, weight, blood pressure, temperature).
- Go wait in an examination room.
- Doctor comes in, asks you about the purpose of your visit, loads up necessary info, does a little interview to see if there is anything in your history that might need to be fixed before T.
- Get informational form about testosterone, go over it with doctor.
- Ask any questions you have at this point.
- Doctor refers you for lab work.
- Go get blood work done.
- Come back to doctor, get prescription, fill prescription, have injection lesson with nurse.
This process was done in 2 visits for me (about 3 weeks apart just based on busy-ness). My doctor's office has a LabCorp location on site, so I just had to walk down the hall and get blood taken. They also have a pharmacy on site, so that last step was all done in one visit.
Questions you should ask the doctor:
- What kind of testosterone am I getting?
- What is the dosage/frequency initially?
- How often do you want to see me for follow-up labwork?
- Is there anything I need to get to administer my testosterone that isn't provided here? (Swabs, bandaids, etc. My doctor's office can provide them to low income people, but this is probably an exception and not the norm).
This endo works mainly with transgender patients. Hrt is his specialty so yes he knows why i am going. I have already sent in my therapist letter and full medical history. And he approved me to start T. Just got am update a few days ago my appointment was changed to thr 19th. I also asked his nurse when we spoke about it. She said since i recently has a full bloodwork done for another doctor and its in my records he might be able to by pass it and i have a large chance of getting the script that day if not about 2 weeks later since he tries to make it go by fast for us.