Planned Parenthood informed consent is amazing. Hopefully this post can help some of you who are struggling.

For <reasons>, I had trouble moving forward with my regular care provider. But I don't want this post to be about that, so, moving on.

I setup an appointment for first consult for transgender hormone therapy through the PP website. The earliest I could make work between my work and school schedule was about 2 weeks out. They use DocASAP, and the process was relatively straight forward.

Fast forward to appointment day (yesterday).

I don't know what I was expecting, but I think we are our biggest naysayers sometimes. I half expected it to be a bunch of hurdles or to be uncomfortable the whole time. I imagine I'm not alone in this, so I want to share my experience.

The lady at the counter was very nice. Polite, professional, and discreet. She had me answer some yes/no questions by pointing to them on a card so nobody would know what she was asking me. It really set my mind at ease. Not one second did I feel judged. Then she had me fill out some paperwork. Said I didn't have to fill out anything on the form that I didn't feel comfortable answering.

Pretty simple questions, name, preferred name, pronouns, some light medical history, if you've taken any hormones before (with/without a script), if I wanted info on expected changes, or to speak with a therapist, and if I felt safe, etc... I answered most of them. I left my preferred name blank because I hadn't decided for sure yet and I didn't necessarily want them using that just yet.

Turned in my paperwork and the receptionist asked my income & family size for their sliding scale (my insurance isn't accepted at PP... moving on). I qualified for a 30% cost reduction. She quoted me ~$175 for the appointment, plus any labs, and they would let me know whose costs before ordering them if the doctor wanted any.

They called me back and the nurse... Guess what... Her name was Natalie! (See my username) She did a quick medical history & took my vitals, and was super nice and professional (but not like cold/clinical, more like she actually cared about me).

Side note I'm tearing up writing this because it was just such a relief to still be treated like a person after putting this off for so long and running all the bad scenarios in my head a thousand times.

Anyway, Natalie leaves the room and after a bit the doctor comes in. She's also super nice, all smiles, did not look at me differently AT ALL. I don't even know how to put this in words, but it literally could not have been better.

She asked if I felt safe, had plans to socially transition, if I was out to anyone, if I felt safe at home/work/school/etc... Completely non-judgemental. Offered to get me info on someone to talk to if I ever need it. She looked over my intake form, saw I had self medicated for a bit with 2mgx2/day sublingual and 25mg/day bicalutamide. We talked about side effects. Of HRT, and what I was looking forward to the most.

On the HRT info forms, it specifically lists estradiol and Spiro as the drugs used for MtF hrt.

We talked about Spiro and it's side effects, pills, patches, injectibles, creams... And Bicalutamide!

Y'all, she ASKED ME WHAT I WANTED! SHE FREAKING LET ME DIRECT MY OWN CARE. I WAS LITERALLY BESIDE MYSELF!!!!

We settled on pills and bica. She liked the 2mg 2x/day estrogen I was on before, and left the room to consult a few other doctors on bicalutamide dosage, came back and said we should start with 50mg/day, and can reduce at any point if I feel like I should. AND we can switch to injections whenever I want (since that is my goal when I transition socially)

She ordered a blood lab to check baseline levels and a liver function test because of the bica (just to make sure my levels don't rise too much by next appointment in 3 months). Total for that was $25.

Then she set me up with ALTO which will same or next day deliver my prescriptions AND SHE PUT THEM IN THE SAME DAY!

This marvelous woman didn't make me wait any longer than I had made myself wait before helping me. (I'm freaking crying again).

Natalie comes back in to wrap things up. Total cost when I checked out (for everything except the scripts)... $174 Freaking less than I was quoted and that included the lab!

10min after leaving, I get a text from alto to setup my insurance and delivery. Again my insurance won't cover, so I'm expecting to pay ~100/mo based on my experience from diy few years ago... $70.01 total. For both. For a 3-month supply. 180x2mg estrogen & 90x50mg bicalutamide. And it's going to be delivered so I don't have to worry about some pharmacist judging me.

Ahh! It was literally the best experience I could have never imagined.

Just wanted to share. Hopefully it will help someone who isn't sure about how their process works.

Tl;Dr - Planned Parenthood El Cerrito is literally the best place on Earth and I'm probably gonna settle on Natalie for sure since it was obviously a sign.