Transgender people have gained more visibility over the last few years. From being non-existent to being exceedingly rare, today we hear of more and more transgendered people, and many of them are very young. Many of the young people who feel themselves to be transgendered, want to undertake body modifications, such as taking hormone blockers or hormone replacement, mastectomies for females, genital surgeries and/of facial surgeries. These are big decisions. How well are these young people screened to make sure there are no other disorders or reasons for wanting to transition that might cloud their judgement?

As is turns out, obtaining medical interventions has become rather easy.

This poster on tumblr, who is 17 years old, went from a general practitioner to a psychiatrist, who is referring them to an endocrinologist who will prescribe testosterone after just two sessions. “All in 1 week”.

“How many sessions with a gender therapist did you go to before you got prescribed hormones?“, is the title of a post on reddit.

“Right away”, “three”, “after my first visit”, “2 months”, “after my second visit”, “4 sessions”.

“Zero”, “zero”, “4-5”, “Two”. This is not a lot of time spent getting therapy.

A poster has seen a therapist who has told them that they are depressed and might not be transgender, The solution is to immediately find a new therapist:

This 19 year old states in a post that “I’ve been in therapy for 4 months now and I’m ready to start hrt. It’s not only what I want but it’s what I need.”. Commenters advise the poster to lie to the therapist and say they are already taking hormones ordered online as a strategy to get a prescription.

The same poster a day later reports that “I no longer felt like I really needed hrt cause if I could feel like this forever then it didn’t matter if I had a male body“. One is left to wonder how many of the young people who report feeling absolutely 100% sure of their decision come to change their minds later – and how many of them could have benefited from therapy that they will not receive, as the “informed consent” style clinics become more and more common.