Hi, I have my letter from a therapist for hormones but need to tell doctor I go to an endo for diabetes but she is young and does not specialize in transgender issues. My appointment is tommorrow and I need to talk to her about treatment. I have no idea how to approach the subject. I live in a community that has only 1 gay club and no transgender specialists. I am so scared!!!!
Hi there, and welcome to EC. As awkward as it might be, why not simply have an open an honest conversation about this with her. If she's young then the odds are good that she's open minded and not all that fussed about LGBT issues. If you're wondering how to bring it up, you'll simply have to say something like "I want to make sure I don't take a prescription that is going to conflict with the treatment you are prescribing. I am seeing a therapist presently and planning to start hormone therapy because I identify as transgendered..." There's no need to be scared. This doctor will either be supportive or she won't be. But you'll never know until you ask. Prepare yourself for the possibility that she won't want to prescribe these hormones because - as you say - she isn't knowledgable on transgender issues, which might mean finding yet another doctor who will. Even if that's the case, it's still important to understand if you hormone therapy will interfere with the treatments you're receiving from this doctor. The more openly we talk about these things, the less of a big deal it will become for everyone. Good luck.
If you're going to go on hormone treatment, you do need to see someone who specializes in hormone treatment and who has experience with transgender issues. The logical person would be your endocrinologist- they are the specialists in this area. If you feel that your endocrinologist doesn't have the experience in transgender issues, a trip to a specialist in the nearest major city would be worth the drive. You could probably work out an arrangement where you see the specialist in the city. If you're put on oral hormones, it would probably require occasional trips to the specialist. If you go on shots, you could still have a nurse or doctor in your hometown administer the shots. You should let your doctors know that you are on hormone therapy since there are medical reasons that they would need to be aware of this.
I would just keep it short and to the point. "Dr. Nelson, I am soon going through hormone treatment to change my gender." And go on from there. Since he's a doctor, I don't think that he'd judge, and if he does, you can complain. I hope this helps :icon_wink:
