Apppointment booked

[Emily LeGoth]

I have a telehealth appointment booked in about three weeks and hopefully will emerge at the other end of it with an HRT prescription.

[tgirlamg]

I have a telehealth appointment booked in about three weeks and hopefully will emerge at the other end of it with an HRT prescription.

Congrats Emily!... Well Done!!... Enjoy the ride!!! 💕🤗💕

[Lori Dee ✅]

Congratulations!

The first step is always the hardest, but also the most necessary. Let us know how it goes!

[Stottie Girl]

I have a telehealth appointment booked in about three weeks and hopefully will emerge at the other end of it with an HRT prescription.

Congratulations Emily! Fingers crossed all goes well for you!

[tammy753]

Congratulations! I did Telehealth for mine and had an HRT prescription after it.

[KristaFairchild]

I have a telehealth appointment booked in about three weeks and hopefully will emerge at the other end of it with an HRT prescription.

I did this recently and it was almost hilariously easy. I'm in California and used Planned Parenthood. I hope it goes well for you! 

[Lori Dee ✅]

My first appointment was TeleHealth through the VA. I lived in South Dakota, and my Endocrinology Team was in Minneapolis. It was great to kick things off, but for follow-up visits, I wanted someone I could meet face-to-face so we could get to know each other.

[ChrissyRyan]

The first prescription will be memorable.


Chrissy

[Emily LeGoth]

The first prescription will be memorable.


Chrissy

I would ask you why but I guess I'll have to find out for myself. 

[Emily LeGoth]

Doc wants to do blood work first. Here's hoping that nothing there torpedoes my plans.  Or that any of the rest of my care team vetoes what I'm trying to do.  I have no idea how trans friendly any of them might be, or not.

[tammy753]

I just started on prescription HRT and was really excited and took pictures and stuff. Then I same my birthname on the bottles. It kind of killed my excitement. I kept the picture but it doesn't mean as much as I had hoped. I hope your experience is better and that they sign off on it.

[Devlyn ✅]

You want them to do blood work first. Anyone who would prescribe without your medical history and lab work would be dangerous.

Hugs, Devlyn

[Emily LeGoth]

Doc also wanted me to talk to my cardiologist (without going into too  many details, I have a weird heart issue). Cardiologist was open to the idea but wants to do a stress test with echocardiogram first. I've done a number of those over the years and they've yielded uninteresting results, so I'm optimistic.

[Kristy7]

Good Luck, you'll be fine

[ChrissyRyan]

Baseline blood draw and labs first along with competent personalized medical situation analysis is important first.

[Tills]

You want them to do blood work first. Anyone who would prescribe without [...] lab work would be dangerous.

Why?

There is no absolute medical reason to conduct laboratory blood tests on a healthy adult before prescribing hormone therapy. There are other normal tests that are advisable: weight (BMI) and blood pressure, as per HRT for cis females. Then you do need regular blood tests after you start the hormones. But before you start? The main reason to do so is to provide a baseline from which to assess subsequent treatment. But "dangerous" not to do so? That is a heavy-handed choice of vocabulary.

It's more a case of best practice as per WPATH. We've all seen an example of the kind of over-reaction when requiring all patients preparing for GRS to come off hormone therapy 4 to 6 weeks prior to surgery, something WPATH have now admitted was wrong in their updated guidance.

More important is to titrate doses upwards gradually, monitoring bloods as the patient progresses.

Unless of course there's an issue ... which leads me onto ...

[Tills]

Doc also wanted me to talk to my cardiologist (without going into too  many details, I have a weird heart issue). Cardiologist was open to the idea but wants to do a stress test with echocardiogram first. I've done a number of those over the years and they've yielded uninteresting results, so I'm optimistic.

... Hi Emily. I'm sorry to hear about that but it sounds like you have it covered.

If it's any help or correlation I have what is known as an 'athlete's heart', which means I'm bradycardic (resting pulse c. 40) with low blood pressure (90/60). So a whole load of check-ups were run on me including stress tests and echo cardiogram.

However, these were unrelated to hormone therapy and at no point has anyone treating me with HRT ever intervened or required anything at all to do with heart checks. The only thing I had to do was upload my Consultant Cardiologist's sign-off letter to the surgical team ahead of my GRS.

So I really hope you have a similarly good result on the heart tests and can soon get going with HRT.

xx

[KristaFairchild]

Why?

There is no absolute medical reason to conduct laboratory blood tests on a healthy adult before prescribing hormone therapy. There are other normal tests that are advisable: weight (BMI) and blood pressure, as per HRT for cis females. Then you do need regular blood tests after you start the hormones. But before you start? The main reason to do so is to provide a baseline from which to assess subsequent treatment. But "dangerous" not to do so? That is a heavy-handed choice of vocabulary.

It's more a case of best practice as per WPATH. We've all seen an example of the kind of over-reaction when requiring all patients preparing for GRS to come off hormone therapy 4 to 6 weeks prior to surgery, something WPATH have now admitted was wrong in their updated guidance.

More important is to titrate doses upwards gradually, monitoring bloods as the patient progresses.

Unless of course there's an issue ... which leads me onto ...

That's what my research shows, too. There are screening questions that are essential, but upon passing those, I was prescribed estradiol immediately. Had I wanted T-blockers it might have gone differently? I've read about many more side effects for them.

[Stottie Girl]

I have had issues with my heart and taking blockers causing ectopic beats (skipped beats) I have had to stop blockers altogether for now. Not sure if it is related but a GP in my twenties picked up that I had a systollic heart murmur but no checks have ever been done, I'm not even sure it is on my medical records because NHS yay!. HRT can and does affect your heart so it is logical to me to have it checked out if they are offering it.

Tills has a valid point about baseline bloods for sex hormones but there are other things that can be relevant like liver function, kidney function and Potassium levels etc these DO need to be known before starting the meds in my opinion.

This from someone who has just thrown caution to the wind and been doing DIY for years ha ha! Do as I say not as I do🤣🤣!