Have any of you guys gone the Informed Consent route to start HRT? This route is most ideal for me because I want to start T while on vacation from work. I am currently working overseas. I have an appointment scheduled in Houston, TX (near me) at an Informed Consent Clinic, Legacy Community Health. My question is as follows: Is it possible to start T within a week or two of your first appointment via the Informed Consent route? I'm not sure on how long it would take to receive a prescription. I'm hoping to do the blood work, sign some papers, tell my story and walk out same day with a prescription. Is that possible?????
I got a referral to an endo who does informed consent, and that's exactly what happened with me.
I signed the papers, and I wasn't expecting anything to happen for another couple of weeks, but when she walked back in she handed me a prescription for T injections. I did some bloodwork and went home to fill the prescription.
The thing is that after you get the prescription, you'll have to set an appointment for your first injection which will take place at the clinic. There they'll teach you how to do self-injections, and from there you can decide whether you want to come back for every injection or just do them on your own.
Good luck on your journey! :)
For me, they asked me questions, had me sign papers, drew blood and showed me how to inject. It took 6 days for my bloodwork to come back then they called in my RX to my pharmacy.
So 6 days total for me, and I didn't didn't have to go back for another 3 months.
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Edit: to be fair, the place i went to told me they usually get blood work back the next day and that mine taking so long was rare for them.
That's how it went for me. Filled out papers, told my story, had blood drawn, and was told to come back the following Monday to pick up meds (pending favourable lab results, of course). Good luck!
Hugs, Devlyn
I went to my Informed consent doctor for an initial appointment. She asked all the standard questions a GP would ask at a first appointment. Medical history, allergies, mental health, STD's etc. Then she asked more specific questions like sexual orientation, if I had a partner and how they felt about my doing HRT, relationship with parents, how I identify gender wise etc.
It wasn't in an interrogating way though, she was literally just filling out a sheet of notes. She then went on to ask what kinds of effects I was hoping for and what I was worried about.
At the end of the appointment she scheduled me for an "informed consent" appointment in which she would actually read me the long document and risks and then teach me how to inject.
Super easy. From first phone call to first injection, it took about 2 weeks and some change. However, I didn't start feeling significant effects until I was 2 weeks on T.
Ditto as all above. I had my prescriptions in about one week from the first appointment.
I was also working overseas at that time, and the clinic worked with me so that when I made it back to the U.S. (in my case the Washington DC area), I came in and had the blood work done and reviewed results with my case manager. That would happen every 3 to six months, depending on opportunities to come back over.
From my experience, it is likely they won't care about your story (believe it or not) and they won't ask you anything about your transition goals. If they ignore specific needs you have, take mental note and be preparred for subsequent visits to speak up.
With informed consent, it's typically one to two appointments. If they do it in two appointments, it's usually because they want to look at your lab results first before they set a starting dosage. Lab results shouldn't take more than a business week to come back at the slowest, so if you call and explain your situation and this is the way they do it, they may be able to pre-schedule your follow up appointment.
The issue you are more likely to encounter is limits on refills and lab work requirements during the first year on T. Most doctors want to see you and current lab results quarterly for the first year so they can see how things are going for you. Some won't give you any refills either, so you would need to go in to get a new prescription each time.
I would post a thread with the name of the clinic in the headline to see if you can attract any members who have gone there. They may be more familiar with the process followed at that specific clinic.
I want to say thank you all for your responses!!! I appreciate all the information. I'll definitely call back to my clinic to schedule my follow up appointment for my first injection and lab results before it's booked and unavailable. Fingers crossed hopefully they'll have something the following week, especially with my vacation being three weeks long. I don't want to put off feeling like myself any longer. Thanks again everybody. :)
Quote from: FTMax on April 23, 2017, 03:36:56 PM
With informed consent, it's typically one to two appointments. If they do it in two appointments, it's usually because they want to look at your lab results first before they set a starting dosage. Lab results shouldn't take more than a business week to come back at the slowest, so if you call and explain your situation and this is the way they do it, they may be able to pre-schedule your follow up appointment.
The issue you are more likely to encounter is limits on refills and lab work requirements during the first year on T. Most doctors want to see you and current lab results quarterly for the first year so they can see how things are going for you. Some won't give you any refills either, so you would need to go in to get a new prescription each time.
I would post a thread with the name of the clinic in the headline to see if you can attract any members who have gone there. They may be more familiar with the process followed at that specific clinic.
Although I am overseas, there is a small hospital facility here. They have most of, if not all the equipment you'd find in a regular hospital, so I'll be able to conduct labs and have my blood work sent off to my clinic back home. Like you said they probably won't issue me a refill but I'm hoping they will or that I won't need a refill until I finish my deployment. From the time my vacation ends to the end of my deployment will be less than 4 months. I'll definitely start a thread with the name of clinic and see if I get anything.
Good luck! You seem to be doing good planning and I'm sure it will work out for you.