Today I was talking with my therapist and we were discussing eventual hormone replacement therapy. I know that you need a letter from a therapist to be able to receive testosterone from an endocrinologist, but it seems to have slipped my mind as to whether or not they need to have a Ph.D. My therapist has a Masters and is skilled in transgender issues. Will I be unable to have a recommendation letter approved because she does not have a Ph.D? If so, she says that she knows one with a Ph.D that I can go to, but they are hours away from where I live and it might be tricky to get it to work out.
For the record, I am in Fort Myers, Florida.
On another note, do any of you guys know of an endo around here that is specialized in transgender care? If they happen not to be near Fort Myers that's fine too. Something is better than nothing. I'm thinking that if they are far away from where I live I can learn to self-inject or have one of my parents help me.
(If you are under age you can get on T as long as you have a parent's consent, right?)
The answers as far as I know:
They don't have to have a Ph.D as long as they are either a licensed psychologist but that was my doctors requirement who wasn't an endo.
Yes a parent's consent works in some cases as long as you are at least 16.
I know of one doctor in Orlando who works with a lot of Tguys but she is a gynecologist so the people in her waiting room are all women which can be awkward from what I've heard
Like Andrew said, I believe they just need to be a licensed therapist. My therapist had no real prior trans experience and wrote my T letter with no problems from my endo.
Not sure about the parents consent tho
My therapist was just a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. BUT, the first person I sent my letter off to said that in his opinion she didn't qualify enough and wanted to send me off to get an 800$ psych evaluation (Which of course I didn't do, and walked out of his office immediately). The second doctor I sent my letter to had no problem and we got started right away :) So I suppose it can depend on whoever is giving the actual prescription's prerogative.
Hey Henry, I live in Cape Coral there is a dr down in Estero her name is Dr. Teresa Sievers..she has worked alot with the trans community. She is very good the only draw back is she doesn't take insurance.