This is for—all this extra stuff—for in case, you know, they're passing laws,
there's more of a shortage or, you know, a general apocalypse.
It's nice to be prepared.
[NowThis' Chelsea Frisbie] This is Stacy Cay, who receives hormone therapy,
including estrogen injections, as part of her gender-affirming care.
She splits her time between two of the many states
that are actively working to pass laws to ban gender-affirming care.
Along with supply shortages, the sweeping bans across the U.S.
have left her concerned about access to her medication.
So she's stockpiling her estrogen.
I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep getting this stuff.
I live in Kansas and Missouri,
and both of these states are trying to pass laws against hormone medicine.
Most of it is targeted at kids.
And—but some of it is targeted at everyone.
I doubt they're just gonna stop at kids.
So we're all worried about our access to these hormones in the future.
While most existing bans
are focused on banning gender-affirming care for people under 18,
Cay is concerned for what's coming next.
In at least five states,
legislation has been introduced that would limit care for adults.
For instance, South Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would
block the state's Medicaid program from covering gender-affirming care.
In Oklahoma, a bill is being proposed that would make it
a felony for doctors to provide transition-related care
like hormones and surgeries to people under 26.
Republicans have been saying a lot of really scary stuff,
such as, like, CPAC, Michael Knowles said that:
Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.
We're really worried about that, and we're very concerned about needing to move.
I like Kansas City, but Kansas City can't protect me
entirely from the politicians in Missouri and Kansas,
so I might need to move to a blue state where they aren’t
introducing a bunch of legislation against trans people.
I'm gonna show you off what I have.
The main one is, you know, liquid estrogen.
There's, there's two different types.
There's a estradiol valerate and delestrogen.
I have a lot of that because it's what I'm most worried about
losing access to because there's a shortage and everything—
every time I try to get it, it's on back order.
And I've been able to amass this amount because I'm lucky.
She points out how banning hormone therapies could affect anyone.
There's a lot of cis people that need these drugs
because they have their own hormone problem.
It's crazy to be banning drugs
that regulate hormones like this for trans or cis people—
it doesn't really matter.
It's good science, and it, it's helpful to use.
Cay is concerned about the impact losing access
to her medication would have on both her physical and mental health.
If I was without estrogen entirely, it would suck.
First thing is you get hot flashes.
I would start smelling bad.
I would start growing,
growing more facial hair, stuff like that.
And it, it'll mess with my brain.
Actually I'll, I'll notice the brain effect first,
and that's just not the way I wanna live.
Cay says that taking hormones helped change her life for the better
and she wants other trans and non-binary folk to get the care that they deserve.
They saved my life.
I spent years being—not suicidal, but I didn't wanna be alive at all.
Like, I, I didn't like who I was.
I didn't like the way I felt.
I didn't like the way my brain worked.
And whenever I started taking these, these hormones,
my life really came together, I would say.
I was happier.
I was more aware of things.
I was more grounded in reality.
It felt like I was living as a real person.
I feel like people think that we're getting diagnosed on a whim,
that we walk in and we get these hormones shoved on us.
That's not how it goes. We are begging for these.
We, we've been told no before.
We've been told no by, by medical professionals in a lot of places
and, and by just society in general that it's wrong and things like that.
And we really have to struggle to get this stuff.
And every person who takes hormones fought for that.
It’s not something that was just given to us.
We had to fight the medical system to get our pills.
And if we got rid of them, if we stopped supporting trans psychology and
just care for trans people in general,
there would be a lot of really sad, miserable trans people.
They'll be a lot happier if you let them have their medicine.