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lectorelvia http://ift.tt/2duNQQs:Transgender Women Are Facing a Devastating Medical Crisis—and No One's Talking About It:
vaspider:
gaywrites:
Bamby Salcedo describes the past month of her life in one word: “devastation.” It was late August when the activist and community organizer first learned about the ongoing injectable estrogen shortage in the United States, which has been gradually impacting the lives of transgender women and transfeminine people like herself for over a year now. As the nation’s supply dries up, trans people who rely on injectable estrogen are panicking.
“Members of the community are not finding out” about the shortage, Salcedo told me. “I don’t think many service providers even know about it. I still have not received notice from a doctor.” In fact, if it weren’t for an acquaintance who works at the clinic she goes to, Salcedo, who founded the Los Angeles-based TransLatin@ Coalition in 2009 to advocate for the needs of trans Latinx immigrants in the U.S., might still be in the dark about the status of her medication, which she described as “life-saving.”
Synthetic estrogen plays a crucial role for trans women and transfeminine people who choose to undergo hormone replacement therapy as a means of medically transitioning. Yet the growing disappearance of its injectable form from the pharmaceutical market has gone largely unnoticed beyond the circles of those affected. Salcedo said that she has “not seen any” media coverage of the shortage, despite the subject’s constant presence on her various social media feeds. That’s not surprising. In the eight weeks since Out magazine’s website broke the news of the “Injectable Estrogen Shortage That’s Leaving Trans Women in Crisis,” very few outlets have picked up the story. This silence, Salcedo told me, must be broken.
“They would not deny a person who is diabetic their medication, right?” she asked. “Access to hormones saves lives. Not having this medication puts us in danger.”
This is critically important. Hormone access can literally be a matter of life and death; we have to keep talking about this.
Wait, WHAT?
vaspider:
gaywrites:
Bamby Salcedo describes the past month of her life in one word: “devastation.” It was late August when the activist and community organizer first learned about the ongoing injectable estrogen shortage in the United States, which has been gradually impacting the lives of transgender women and transfeminine people like herself for over a year now. As the nation’s supply dries up, trans people who rely on injectable estrogen are panicking.
“Members of the community are not finding out” about the shortage, Salcedo told me. “I don’t think many service providers even know about it. I still have not received notice from a doctor.” In fact, if it weren’t for an acquaintance who works at the clinic she goes to, Salcedo, who founded the Los Angeles-based TransLatin@ Coalition in 2009 to advocate for the needs of trans Latinx immigrants in the U.S., might still be in the dark about the status of her medication, which she described as “life-saving.”
Synthetic estrogen plays a crucial role for trans women and transfeminine people who choose to undergo hormone replacement therapy as a means of medically transitioning. Yet the growing disappearance of its injectable form from the pharmaceutical market has gone largely unnoticed beyond the circles of those affected. Salcedo said that she has “not seen any” media coverage of the shortage, despite the subject’s constant presence on her various social media feeds. That’s not surprising. In the eight weeks since Out magazine’s website broke the news of the “Injectable Estrogen Shortage That’s Leaving Trans Women in Crisis,” very few outlets have picked up the story. This silence, Salcedo told me, must be broken.
“They would not deny a person who is diabetic their medication, right?” she asked. “Access to hormones saves lives. Not having this medication puts us in danger.”
This is critically important. Hormone access can literally be a matter of life and death; we have to keep talking about this.
Wait, WHAT?
