Beginning my Transition

So, about three weeks ago, I began my gender transition with my first testosterone injection. When I first came out as genderqueer a year ago, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to transition. However, after doing a lot more research and soul searching, I came to realize that this was the right step for me going forward.

To that end, I began talking to my doctors in March. They referred me to seek therapy first, which is the most common first step. I had two sessions with a therapist and she signed off on my diagnosis of gender dysphoria. That paved the way for me to schedule an appointment with an endocrinologist.

The endocrinologist prescribed the testosterone to me, but there was a slight hiccup with my insurance at first. I had wanted to avoid injections because I’m terrified of needles. However, it turned out that the topical testosterone gel is ridiculously expensive. Even with my insurance, the brand name was $600/month, and the generic was $375/month. I couldn’t afford either of those. So, I reluctantly agreed to the injections instead. That costs $21/month, plus the cost of going into my doctor’s office ($35 per visit) every 2 weeks to have it injected (there’s no way I can do that myself). In the end that was still cheaper than the alternative.

At three weeks in, I haven’t had a lot of changes yet. Many of them will take months or years to happen. The most noticeable change so far has been my increase in libido, which was to be expected. I’m sure other changes will begin to happen, and I’ll post updates as things progress.