No. This is incorrect. OP explicitly mentions "jumping through bureaucratic hoops"

> Not long after, I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops, and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy

No mention of a doctor or monitoring. I don't live in the USA - bureaucratic hoops sounds like what I go through to get my id renewed.

I believe it's implied. Typically the bureaucratic hoops involve 1-2 mental health professionals writing letters in support, potentially 0-2 years "living as the gender" before they will write those letters, meetings with your doctor, bloodwork for baseline hormone levels (sometimes multiple times), and then finally you might get a scrip.

But if you encounter someone along the way who doesn't want to co-operate, you might need to redo those steps. It's really rather difficult, depending on where you are.

I was living maybe ten minutes' walk from the local testing clinic at the time so it was actually pretty easy to monitor my blood work.

My opinion is that at least (safe, not spiro) anti-androgens should be able to be bought OTC. If some people want to place blockers on themselves they should be allowed to. I mean if you don't allow them to they DIY

This isn't true.

(It should be, in my opinion--I don't believe in third parties with no stake making forced decisions for you for what can and can't enter your body--but as someone for whom this is lived experience, you can't do this, especially not at a Walgreens and not without getting LFTs and hormone levels done regularly.)

Where on earth are you getting this idea from?

From the first few paragraphs of the article?

> and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy with a paper bag filled with repurposed menopause medication

and then no mention after of monitoring of health effects?

So, the beginning of that sentence is:

> I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops

Bureaucracy != medicine

Medicine does however = bureaucracy.

Informed consent is absolutely medicine and absolutely includes advice from a doctor

Wait until you hear about how easy it is to get testosterone.

Ironically, testosterone in theory is harder to get. Since it is widely used for sports doping, it's considered an anabolic steroid, and is a scheduled substance in the US, and so has a bit more oversight to prescribe and dispense. (But I imagine there's probably also a larger black market for it for the same reasons.)

There are a billion TRT clinics that will prescribe you testosterone with basically zero oversight and at dosages that are supraphysiological.

And yes, the black market is huge - anyone with google and the ability to purchase crypto can get it easily delivered, either domestically, or from china.

Not only TRT but also Tren and other anabolic steroids that work in tandem with Testosterone to boost lean mass and reduce fat.

>> You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even though hormone replacement therapy can lead to all kinds of problems? Is this normal?

Go chug a quarter of a McBurgerStan sized bottle of Tylenol available at near every cornerstore in our country and you’ll literally fucking die a harrowing death. I do not even mildly see your point. Quite frankly those against open access to all medicine need to die. The harm a lack of accessibility causes to society at large is incalculable, because the disabled go unseen rotting away in their homes – if they’re so lucky to even have that.