I find it a bit hard to believe that one could safely diy testosterone without getting blood tests.
You know, to check your liver? Your blood cells count?? The inside things affected by T that have to be monitored to ideally keep you in the right range beyond just the T levels????
Like, how on earth are you gonna go diy and do the needed tests without being caught onto and face legal problems?! I just can't wrap my head around that, like that is actually a problem because you, on the T, have every need to understand whether you're in the right range or not, and if you're in a location that has banned you from getting it safely with diy surely that's gonna be a bad move!
I'm not against this whole thing but I think theres too much of this mindset that you'll "die without getting on T lol like Imma end it if I don't" (paraphrasing half of what I've seen). How did we go from "You don't need to be on HRT to help trans and valid" to "If you're gonna treat DIY like it's bad you're a gatekeeper"?!??
I want my brothers to live, I genuinely do, but this... I don't wanna see you lose even your DIY route if it means either doing the wrong dosage because you wouldn't do tests, or losing access to it because someone snitched on you at the blood test results.
You're not gonna die without it, I just want my chosen fam to be safe and healthy, DIY or not diy.
So I was thinking of how to properly respond to this. For starters, you can still get blood work done while doing DIY HRT. I actually recommend it myself. As do many others that have done DIY HRT themselves. There are plenty of places you can get your blood work tested without having an official doctor. A lot of people don't have insurance or even a proper primary care doctor, for example. It's not very likely they'll investigate you or snitch on you for having testosterone in your system. They won't know what you don't tell them. Also there are HIPA laws that protect you from having medical information exposed or released to external sources.. for example I used to be a major junkie (I am clean now but anyways) and I was admitted to the hospital countless times and they would never report me to the police for having illegal drugs in my system. If they really were to call the police every time someone had an illegal substance in their system, there would be like half the population in jail lmao. Not saying it's impossible, but it is highly unlikely this will happen.
Secondly, I never stated that trans people who aren't on T are not valid as trans people. You can absolutely be trans and valid without taking HRT. Every trans person is different however and to say "you're not gonna die without it" is honestly insensitive and ignorant. I promise you I will die without T. This is my lifeline. A world where I cannot properly live as who I am is not one worth living in at all. But again every trans person is different. Some might not even want to take HRT and that's fine. But for some of us, we absolutely need the hormones to feel okay in our own skin.
And again, DIY HRT is a last resort option. Obviously I'm sure most of us would prefer to go through a doctor if we could but that is unfortunately not an option for all of us and so we resort to these methods. I always say you gotta do what you gotta do. Just do your research and try your best to be as safe as possible and cover your own ass.