It really depends on where you are. In the US it's remarkably easy if you're an adult. Basically find a doctor that does informed consent and wait the 1-3 months for an appointment. It's one of the few things we do well when it comes to healthcare.

And if you don't have a doctor with informed consent like I did, it'll probably take about 3 months of therapy, but your wait list time can be during that so it can easily be 4 months. That's how it was for me 10 years ago

Seriously, Europe needs better trans healthcare. We have family medicine doctors and general practitioners who specialize in serving the queer community's health needs and they will prescribe hormones without much fuss

diy hrt our beloved :3

I started out with telehealth which let me begin immediately (folx health, US only). I had to sign up on a website, then book a 30 minute therapist meeting on their website, which was available within a week. After the 30 minute session, they shipped the meds the next day and it arrived in 4 days.

Here's resources on finding telehealth: https://diyhrt.info/resources/telehealth/

Informed consent and Planned Parenthood in the US. I scheduled an appointment about a week out from when I called and left with a prescription. This was almost 6 years ago, and it's handled by my primary care doctor now, but that was the quick route to get started!

In the US informed consent is an option in many places, so you can get HRT in days.

I'm in the U.S.

After some therapy I called up my primary care physician (PCP), told my nurse I have gender dysphoria and would like a referral to an endrocrinologist, and then gave the information about the endo so they could send over the referral.

Then the endo called me and I made an appointment, the first available was 3 months away. The endo thought it was obvious I should be on estrogen and sent the prescription in immediately, and I was able to pick up the estrogen that day.

Sometimes the psychologist can send the referral rather than the PCP, but my PCP was happy to send it (I got lucky, my PCP was randomly trans-affirming and turns out, unknown to me, they had other trans patients). So one way this can get bogged down is if your psychologist or PCP isn't willing to send a referral to an endo, or if you're relying on the PCP for the HRT, they just won't write you the Rx.

Another way this can get bogged down is if the wait time to see the endo is longer, or if the endo decides they aren't sure they should prescribe you the HRT.

This is why it's good to talk to the local trans community to know which therapists, PCPs, and endos to see. If the community doesn't know, sometimes there are resources and directories collected online - I found my endo through the Trans in the South guide.

DIY or semi DIY via a business.

Informed consent from doctors that arent shit. Sadly those are a bit rarer.

i wan. i need. now.

Having to wait for only 1 year would have been amazing

I have to wait for at least 3 years to begin the process of trying to get HRT(4 and a half years after discovering i was trans)

Weil i was living as a woman for about a year bevor even starting to try and get hrt, because I wanted to be sure that this was the right thing for me... Then the secret was just finding the right doctors to write the referral, by asking other trans people where they got theirs, then it went quite fast... What part of Germany are you from btw?

I'd assume it depends on where you live but here it took me a month and half for a first appointment with a GP, 3 months to go to a hospital for a fertility preservation (idk if that's the word in English) and then 2 weeks later I got my gel :3

Had a similar experience in Austria (even tho people say that it's easier here). Pretty much took me a year too and I optimized the hell out if the waiting times with stuff like writing several doctors at once and seeing who would give me the fastest appointment.

I still have to go to Germany soon.... The waiting time for bottom surgery in Austria is 5-6 years....

Yeah, I had to wait over a year

Did it without informed consent through the Austrian system (three specialist statements and a doctor's appointment at a doctor who's willing to provide HRT). It took me about 3 months and multiple trips to Vienna (for seeing a clinical psychologist and the doctor without 7 months wait time like my local transgender clinic has). Vienna is like 5 hours away for me. It also was all in all like 1.000€ out of pocket and I got only refunded 300€ of it by government insurance. But I still would do it that way again and recommend it to my trans friends.

In Germany there's also self-paid informed consent via online presciption e.g. dokter-online, haven't tried that myself, but have heards good things about it from Germans.

When I called my doctor to get an appointment for HRT they said their next available was in 2 days, insanely quick.