Umm, as someone studying medicine, I can tell you that messing with your hormones by taking supplements isn’t exactly healthy. I am not trying to criticize your life choices, but I do want to warn you about the possible health issues that may arise.

Then you should also want to educate yourself on Gender Dysphoria. Over 41% of transgender people attempt suicide. The majority of those people due so because they can’t medically transition by taking hormones. It’s life or death for a lot of transgender people. The fact that people don’t understand that is the exact reason transgender people are so marginalized. If he or any other transgender individual needs to take hormones the outcome of NOT taking the hormones has far greater risks (statistically: ending their life) than the minor side effects that have been studied and documented over the last several decades.

Then it would seem to me that therapy would be the more logical first choice of treatment then, considering that it has no side effects whatsoever. As for not understanding, I am aware that transgenders are victim to severe depression. I guess we disagree on the best course of treatment. I feel that severely altering one’s body is neither safe nor a successful method of treatment, but I understand that this is not my decision to make.

Being transgender and understanding transsexualism is hard to understand, unless you experience it for yourself. I’m going to try to adress several parts of this and try to help you understand, since you seem to be a person willing to try to understand other perspectives.

First, to address your first comment. I’m not sure if you mean “supplement” as in something akin to dietary supplements, but if that was what you meant then he is certainly not taking that. Either way, HRT is not in anyway dangerous. You are “studying” medicine, that doesn’t make you a medical expert. I believe a good majority of the medical community will agree with me in saying that HRT is a safe way to help treat gender dysphoria. There are risks, but most of the time they do not lead to long term health issues. I wish I had sources, but sadly I’m not as prepared I would like to be to have this debate. Actually, a lot of people get HRT as they get older to help with health issues. Granted, it’s not cross sex hormones like transgender people take, but “messing with hormones” can actually be beneficial. Plus, it’s not like we get this stuff off the black market. It’s prescribed by credible physicians who specialize in this type of thing. It’s done in a safe manner, and if health problems do occur the treatment is stopped.

On your second point: no, therapy does not help. It’s not the most effective treatment because it does nothing to fix the disassociation the brain has with the body. It’s not psychological, it’s neurological. You can put someone who is transgender through years of intensive therapy and that will not change a thing about them. Depression is a side effect of what’s actually going on.

This has nothing to do with this discussion, but I really hope you try harder in your studies and learn from credible sources. If you don’t, I really hope you choose a medical field that doesn’t involve being in contact with people who are possibly transgender. If anything, you would probably get a lot of lawsuits, either for malpractice or discrimination. I don’t really know how it works, but I can imagine it won’t help your future career in anyway to continue to be ignorant.

Thank you for your response. After reading up on some more articles from a different and more recent source, I retract my earlier statements about HRT being a dangerous procedure. I originally read a study linking it to various coronary diseases, but that study was outweighed by the others I found. I would like to clarify that I do not view transgender people as inhuman, and I apologize to those whom I offended. Thank you very much for providing your critique in a professional, informative manner.