The one hour phone conversation seems to merely be an insurance company formality since the physician has basically given me the green light for HRT based on simple informed consent. My insurer is an HMO, and I do believe that they are simply doing their due diligence to really help the transgender clients they serve. I have found out that a key player in the transgender services that my HMO provides is herself a MTF transgender Female Physician who seems to have paved the way for the informed consent policy together with a simple phone conversation with a social worker.
My previous primary care physician had been nagging me for years to address my blood pressure, based on family history. This physician handed my case off to my now new primary care physician who is the transgender specialist in the office. He simply wanted me to follow through on the nagging I had been given by my previous doctor to actually go back for one more blood pressure check in the office and to accept BP medication. The HMO is just keeping their ducks in line, so to speak. I am comfortable with that. The entire staff is extremely transgender friendly.
I am still overjoyed and elated with the profound Seattle-type acceptance I have received from the staff at my physician's office. The doctor never said that HRT was conditional on lowering my blood pressure first. He wanted a full blood test prior to HRT and that seems routine. The blood pressure issue seemed to be more of a recommendation than a requirement.