The Midwest.

It's fairly rare that it's a "crime" to give the wrong gender on a form, actually. Nobody would charge you for one thing; they might ask questions or kick up a fuss, but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone thrown in jail for it. Most legal paperwork wouldn't consider that fraud, especially if someone is…

Well, the hoops are mostly imposed for me and other trans people by doctors and psychologists who are in CYA mode.

Also, a link to the article is here, given that the one above doesn't work.

Indeed it is. Unless you're my doctor and you need to know about my biology for health monitoring reasons, you don't need to know my gender.

And an NPR article that discusses the difference between having your own doctor prescribe and monitor your testosterone use vs. one of these T-Centers. That does highlight the concern better - the T-Center is definitely invested in getting you on T, whereas your own doctor might be more diligent about looking at…

Here is another article on Forbes on the guy from May of last year. They do blood work and monitoring; they just specialize in it.

Sounds like that's getting into the "not strictly legal" territory, which is definitely a price-jump.

Yeah, I'm not factoring in my doctor's appointments, but mine are still covered by insurance. I pay $35 co-pay per doctor visit. Yeah, I'm really curious about these T-Centers. Doesn't seem like a good deal.

Well given that I'm on T, I do know that. :)

Yep; basically they do baseline blood work for you, and then monitor every three months after that, checking cholesterol, etc. At least if you're being responsible, they do.

Covered by insurance, and $35/month is the total cost, not my out-of-pocket. Insurance pays $25 of it. I get a custom-compounded cream from a local pharmacy.

I do get a generic custom compounded cream that is covered by my insurance.

I knew that branded stuff is more expensive, but $400 a month seems pretty far out there. I've seen a spreadsheet of survey answers from various trans men about how much they pay for T (and dosage, what type of stuff they use, etc.) and $100 a month was on the high end for branded gels and creams.

Yep. Given what I've had to do to get on T in the first place, a new diet and exercise program is mandatory for me. I want to get out of it all that I'm putting in, and I don't want my other behavior to lower the effectiveness of what I'm trying to do.

Yeah, I'd much rather be monitored. Too much at stake not to have someone looking out for me. But the barriers for trans people to get hormone treatments are pretty high, even though the WPATH recommendations urge doctors to make decisions based on informed consent for people over 18. I had to do months of therapy.…

Yeah, but "controlled substance" means there's lots of scrutiny on how and why testosterone is prescribed. I would think simply paying more wouldn't get you around that. But then I'm still in the dark about all the detail, given that I can't read the original article.

If only we could trade. :)

Nobody. :)

From everything I've heard, the working out, drinking less and less stress can cause your T levels to rise on their own as well. Stuff we eat and how we live can cause fluctuations.