The fear/anxiety of losing access to hormones

[AoifeJ]

I am just wondering how everybody here deals with the fear of losing access to hormones.

With the stories coming out in the past year or two of this drug and that drug seeing like 2000% price increases, and the shortage of higher dose estradiol injections, how do you reconcile the anxiety of what may happen in the future? I know for me, as much as the bodily changes feel amazing, I am nervous about the long term accessibility of estradiol. What happens if I decide to get an orchiectomy, or even potentially GCS (though that feels less likely for me at this stage) because I don't want to stay on spironolactone long term, and something happens where you can't get access to hormones any longer? Maybe the economy crashes, maybe another large war breaks out, or I lose my job, become homeless, etc., maybe the price of estradiol sees a terrible spike. I feel like I'd be up ->-bleeped-<-'s creek, so to speak. I know I can't be alone in thinking about these things.

What are some things that you tell yourself, or perspectives that you have, to combat the fears/anxieties. I know I'm supposed to just focus on living in the moment and not borrow trouble before it comes, but it's easier said than done.

[Megan.]

I've had the same concerns about starting down that road and then being unable to obtain or afford it.

[Rachel]

Hi,

The recent issue with injectable E is the manufacturer is switching to a different supplier and it take time to the FDA to allow the suppliers ingredients to pass. I switched back to pills for the interim ( I am off HRT for FFS right now).

I am not the least bit worried about a supply of E in the future.

It the price ever goes up too much there would be a huge backlash from CIS woman who use it. We are not the primary user of E. 

[DawnOday]

Don't vote for the haters number one. You need to exercise your right to vote in your best interest. We all do. This is not a political statement it is your duty as a citizen.

Living in fear is a terrible thing. Most of us have been doing it since an early age and were afraid to get caught. Society had taught us what we do is somehow perverted or mentally ill and so we put off, make excuses, become adept at lying, anything to keep people from making judgements. After a while that fear gets overwhelming and you got to fight back. Until 6 months ago, I lived in fear. I'll 65 in four weeks. I'll not live in fear again.

Spiro is a diuretic used in treatment of congestive heart failure. It also blocks testosterone. I've been on low dose for about 25 years, because I have CHF. They also, because they are diuretics, sometimes cause me to get dehydrated and dizzy. I can attest that I had pretty nice breasts before taking estrogen just on the Spiro alone. But they seem to be more pert and less droopy as my fat redistributes. Estrogen will not go away as a birth control. There are Presidents (obama) recommending they be given away.That pretty much ensures that E will be available for a long time to come. As to raising prices. In a transformation E is relatively cheap considering the surgerys we are willing to go through to pass. I want something more. Acceptance whether I pass or not. All humans deserve their dignity and the right to explain themselves.  .

[stephaniec]

I really can't imagine any reason for that to happen

[anjaq]

Once you had the orcie , in the worst case one can live without estradiol and not revert back too much, but I think some sort of estradiol will be around unless there really is a WWIII or some apocalypse, but I think then probably other things are becoming the primary concern.

[xchrisx]

So I can totally relate to this concern.  I don't trust the government or big pharma  not to screw with us and our hormones.
I'm FTM and have done heaps of research on other supplements / food sources etc for T boosting / E suppression which I may or may not be stockpiling lol.

I'm an Anarchist and self sufficient homesteader type. I'm  someone who thinks a bit about collapse.  I don't take ANYYYYTHING  for granted.   I'm also  someone who lives below the poverty line and if one day testosterone goes sky high, I'd like to know that I can hang onto the changes I've achieved over the years on T.

I'm certainly not someone who lives in fear, but I do  hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[anjaq]

There are ways to increase efficiency of some hormones. Like sublingual application or rectal/vaginal application, that way one can use only 1/5th of the regular dosage, but its not really always a safe application. Gel can also be used to basically build low cost hormone patches with just a few drops. But its all experimental - in case of some collapse however maybe its useful - but some stockpiling still would need to be done. There is no way it would last for many years though.

[AoifeJ]

Thank you everybody for the replies! I appreciate all the perspectives 

[RobynD]

Oral Estradiol is cheap and should remain so because there is a single patent held be one company. Spiro as someone has mentioned is long used patent free medication that the WHO lists as one of its essential meds.

http://www.drugpatentwatch.com/p/generic-api/estradiol

http://www.drugpatentwatch.com/p/generic-api/spironolactone

[AnonyMs]

I'm concerned protecting myself generally, and HRT is just one aspect of that. I've dealt with it by working out how to protect myself, which means having money and plenty of alternate sources.

[becky.rw]

Its completely irrational, but yeah; and I fear loss of access to the anti-androgen more than E actually.   Enough so that such a loss has made a feature appearance in an actual dream. 

Which is really kind of silly, the same people that hate the entire idea of medical transition available, also think "Chemical Castration" is an awesome punishment.   So, as long as I call that which I'm desperately afraid of losing a terrible sounding name, they'll fork it over.   Heck, maybe if I explain to them how incredibly powerful Lupron is, they'll give me a 6 month shot of it as long as I wear a pink dress and threaten to use the girls bathroom.

lol
sorry, couldn't resist, the fear is irrational, all of these drugs are far too important in their primary use to ever make them unavailable.
   

[AnonyMs]

sorry, couldn't resist, the fear is irrational, all of these drugs are far too important in their primary use to ever make them unavailable.

That sounds like an opportunity for some company to corner the market and raise the price 100 times. Think of the profits!

[becky.rw]

I know the event you are referring to.  The drug in question, is available in any tropical country for about $5; because its used in the millions.   The problem is that it is a disease that doesn't occur in the US, so the total run for US consumption might be 1000 pills / year.

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how to pay for FDA approval of your manufacturing process and only sell 1000 pills a year.

Anyone that needs that particular drug could fly to Mexico City, by a course of treatment for less than the cost of lunch and fly back.

The whole episode is more an indictment of our benighted FDA than it is the guy who bought the US license for the drug.

[AnonyMs]

There's plenty of examples, the latest one being the EpiPen and that's quite the classic.

[becky.rw]

Epipen has risen 4x over seven years.   Not 100x overnight.   I've actually been kinda interested in epipen as I've developed an allergy to wasps that's getting a little scary, but my GP talked me out of it and to just rely on my mad dash for the benedryl bottle till there's an indication of some airway constriction.

As a side note, use of an epipen REQUIRES a trip to the hospital after use, preferably by ambulance as they're setup to insure you don't die on the way..    So... current cost for the thing remains a minimal part of the overall price of the event.

[AnonyMs]

Agreed its not 100x, but the interesting thing about Epipen is how they have captured the market. It shouldn't be possible. In Australia its about US$75, or half that with government subsidy.

[becky.rw]

Nature of patent law.   Patent will expire soon enough and then any company that wants to go through the FDA process can make and sell them.

[anjaq]

There are sooo many variations of estradiol medication. Pills, Geld, injections, patches - differnt companies make them, the are copied for cheap in asian countries for local markets, not caring about patent rights... I doubt that there will ever be an issue with them really going unavailable or prices going up.

More likely one of the following is threatining personal supply:
- doctors not giving prescription anymore for political or ideological reasons (meaning one has to actually smuggle the medication from other countries or use black markets which are more expensive and unreliable)
- personal or regional/national loss in financial abilities and thus affording the regular prices even. Imagine getting homeless or imagine the state you live in dropping to the poverty level of Ghana or Ethiopia. At that point regular world market prices of any drug, even Aspirin will be high in relation and counterfeit drugs that are cheaper cannot be trusted.

[HughE]

Nature of patent law.   Patent will expire soon enough and then any company that wants to go through the FDA process can make and sell them.

Patents only last 20 years, and epipens first became available to the public in 1980 (and they'd been used by the military for some time prior to that). Therefore, epipens can't still be under patent. My guess is that the company selling brand name epipens owns the copyright to the name "Epipen" (copyrights last more or less indefinitely for some reason), and the FDA are preventing any competing generic versions from being marketed by refusing to license them. The problem is your FDA, they're misusing their regulatory powers to artificially limit supply of certain medicines to a few favoured companies (who can then charge sky high prices, when generic versions of that same medicine are sold for pennies in other countries).