COVID-19 Survival Guide: Access to Hormones or Health Care

During times of lockdown, you might have limited access to health care or even your hormones. Health care services are stretched to the max in many places with nothing but acute responses to the virus outbreak being available, with many surgeries or other services on hold. 

This doesn’t only apply to trans related health care and most health care that isn’t deemed acute is probably placed on hold. You should still be able to have access to your prescriptions through your pharmacy, however. If you can’t, there are also some private doctors or services that will honor a prescription you had – if you can afford to pay for the service. If you can’t, you can also seek support from a local trans group and on how to access hormones during these times.

If you were scheduled in for surgery and it’s been put on hold, just remember that this won’t last forever. There will be a time where surgeries will be scheduled back in, but right now health care systems are focused on dealing with COVID-19. There will be a time where you can get your surgery, and once you get it the waiting won’t matter as much. Just remember to take extra care of yourself, remind yourself that this isn’t permanent and find things to look forward to once this all ends.

Practical points/tips

• If you’re unsure how lockdown might affect your access to health care, get in touch with your provider or local support groups. Your health care provider should give you answers to your questions and there are likely other people going through the same. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions!

The COVID-19 Survival Guide is a project in collaboration with Fox and Owl, the creators of The Trans Teen Survival Guide, on what it means to be a young trans person and how to deal with topics such as gender dysphoria, hormone blockers, surgery and more. They also run My Genderation, a film project that celebrates trans lives and trans experiences.