I'm not spreading fud. I'm not asking questions.

I'm making a statement that drug classifications exist for a reason, even when flawed.

In the case of the various hormones, while I absolutely insist that access should be open and free, they are a class of medications that should be screened for contraindications. To a degree that simply doesn't match the level of risk that is acceptable for an OTC medication.

Being real, or isn't about trans access at all. Nobody needs to run into them OTC. Little old ladies with hot flashes, guys wanting to boost muscle gains, whatever. They just aren't a good OTC candidate.

That is completely separate from how horribly unfair and biased the medical community can be about access to meds for trans people. It's separate from trans people deserving total access to whatever treatment regimen they and their providers determine is safe enough and useful for their needs. It's about the mind numbing list of contraindications. It isn't "just" breast cancer or coronary risks. Both of which are far from trivial, but you know those risks going in because they're the common, well known ones.

Like estradiol and some anticonvulsants, or benzos. The possible outcomes from that kind of interaction aren't likely to kill anyone, but they're going to have an unpleasant experience and need to change either their hrt regimen, or the other meds until a combination is found that's both effective and safe.

You can't do all that on your own. Nobody can because it's not only unsafe, it's a hit into the resources that are sometimes already limited. You get randos just deciding they need to switch from valium to, I dunno, xanax, and even if that was a perfect switch to make, now you've got their supply of valium that's in the trash or whatever because you can't just return them. Or vice versa, they switch the estradiol and now that's either trash or is an unverified drug floating around which is a whole nuther kettle of fish being spilled.

The problem is that trans people need to be given the respect and decency to have access to transition resources without the bullshit, not what the meds are classified as. You, me, Terry down the street, we all have a fundamental right to equal access to services and medications. It I can get testosterone provided as a cis man, so should you as a trans man. Period. No buts. This is a separate thing from testosterone being an over the counter med.

It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. People seem to forget that most of the drug classifications and regulations came about because without them, shit was horrible. Those classifications and regulations aren't always accurate representations of anything other than the stupidity of legislators, but that just means we need better methods of changing them, not that they don't work at all.

Seriously here, I have seen, first hand, too fucking many times exactly what happens when people start taking shit that they shouldn't. I was very often the first person to notice that kind of thing coming into a new patient's home and observing their medications. People taking way too high a dose, or not enough. Taking things that absolutely shouldn't have been taken together. I have seen some fucked up shit because of medications being used inappropriately. So, when I say that the various HRT meds should not be OTC, it isn't bigotry, it isn't fud, it's first hand experience combined with training and knowledge.

I'm not talking out of my ass here, I've seen exactly what can go wrong when someone takes estradiol while also taking thyroid meds. It isn't going to kill most people (and didn't my patient), but it was absolutely something that would happen with it OTC, because that poor, half dementia swallowed old lady got the estradiol from her sister, not her doctor, who would have been able to find the right combination of meds for her case.