Toward an Informed Consent Model for All Drugs
And yes, I do mean *all* drugs.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
It’s May of 2018, and I’m sitting on an examination table at Howard Brown Health Center’s TPAN location. My nurse practitioner, Jon, is a cheery, open-faced man with a trimmed grey beard. He’s sitting facing me, with a laptop at his side, and asking questions with a degree of patience and warmth that I’m not accustomed to in a medical provider.
“So you’re in today for a safe passage letter?” he asks.
A safe passage letter is a document provided by a physician to the court system, indicating that for the sake of a patient’s safety, the gender marker on their ID needs to be changed. I’ve asked for a safe passage letter so that I can change my legal gender to male.
“Yes,” I tell him. “But I was also thinking of starting low-dose testosterone.”
“We will get that letter ready for you today either way, that’s no problem,” he tells me, which is a relief. It turns out I don’t have to be on any kind of medical regime in order to legally transition. “And if you’ll just give me a moment, I’ll pull up some information about your options for low-dose T.”
