Gender healthcare in Taiwan

Hi,

I’m going to preface this thread with [yes I know Taiwan has very limited/complicated gender healthcare.]

Basically I have an ARC, I normally fly around the world and keep my apartment here, though with current events I’m sorta stuck in place for awhile.

I’m looking to transition to non-binary [basically MTF but less intensive], I’ve reached out to a few people/places though it’s a whole lotta [go talk to this person, who’s then go talk to this person] and nothing is really moving.

I’m looking into getting an informed consent note from a u.s psychologist but they’re also kinda bricked at the moment due to the whole [u.s is in crises] thing so waiting lists are like hundreds of people long at clinics.

Basically I’m gonna probably be in Taiwan for the next year and I’d like to get on this now [I’m 27, it gets a bit spicier the older you get.] As my other option is flying back to America and, I dunno that just don’t feel like a good idea anyway I spin it.

If anyone has advice it’d be appreciated.

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The only openly transgender person I know on the forum is @audreyt. Maybe Audrey might know some things that can help.

Audrey Tang posts on here? Blimey!

Probably has a higher IQ than the rest of us combined.

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Oh I already reached out to them, they were helpful though it’s just been a lot of emailing places and going [no, we can’t sign off on that].

Right now I’m just going through private clinic lists in the u.s to get a telescript to go to the hospital with. At any other time I would just fly to NYC for 3 months, get started/make sure stuff is running then fly back.

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While I may be little to no help. If you figure it out, detailing your experience transitioning may be of great help to other people here in Taiwan.

They might know

https://tapcpr.org/english/about-us

Yeah I definitely will.

To my rough understanding, the normal/easy way to go about this is heading to Korea or Vietnam or Thailand and getting diagnosed there and coming back to TW with scripts.

I talked with a fairly experienced plastic surgeon here and it was basically [it’s kind of a pain just keep emailing folks until someone pops up.] I do have the vibe stuff would be a lot easier if I was just going MTF, as there’s a psych path for that. Though the inbetween folks are kinda eh on.

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I’m MTF. You can buy estradiol (雌二醇, the brand I take is 益斯得) and antiandrogens (I take CPA, Androcur/安得卡) at pharmacies without a prescription here. That won’t help you with gender surgeries, but you probably don’t want do to those here anyway. I honestly don’t know much (anything) about nonbinary care, but if you have any other questions I’ll try to help!

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That’s good to know, I’d say I’m looking to do it more formally w/bloodwork and hormone monitoring. Basically a doctor someone that’s like [I’m not sure what to do but whatever you’re doing isn’t creating complications.

Also yeah I’m not going in for any surgeries anytime soon. If you know any doctors that work in this area that’d be appreciated.

Well you can go into any testing clinic and test anything you want with no questions asked too, but of course it’s better to have a doctor’s guidance, especially early on, and you might have narrower targets? For MTF it’s pretty simple, nuke T and get E2 in female range. There are also some docs in the US who do trans telemedicine and maybe they’d be willing to work with you.

I don’t know any doctors here because I didn’t want to be kicked around the system for years either, sorry. There is/was a website with some pretty comprehensive info on everyone who does trans therapy in Taiwan, I’m a bit busy right now but I’ll see if I can find it later.

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http://intermargins.net/repression/deviant/transgender/tgpamphlet/charge.htm

Okay, here it is all in Chinese unfortunately. All the major docs including what testing, therapy etc they require. I can’t vouch for how accurate or up to date this is as I never ended up using it, just something I found a couple years ago. Just be aware as you probably know by now that it is going to be like pulling teeth to get a diagnosis from a Taiwanese doctor. If you search a bit on PTT you will see stories of out/full-time/heterosexual trans women having to wait a year or more to get hormones. If you’re not Taiwanese/Asian maybe you’ll have an easier time? Be careful also about getting prescribed something nasty like Premarin. Stay safe!

Thanks, I have a lot to think about. I really wish I could just go to America to get started on this stuff but it’s just, such a bad idea.

Fortunately once you have your treatment set up Taiwan is a pretty good place to be trans/gender nonconforming :grin:

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OOH I just remembered. 2020 Pride Taipei is on 31st October. There might be some people you could meet there as well to help you on your journey.

@blueskywhitesky’s post made me think of 2020 Pride Taipei.

Ohhh exciting, I’ve been to pride before though never as like, with pride [I lived in Seattle/Portland so paraaades]

So as an update on this I was able to get baseline hormones over the counter and for the most part just been waddling along, though couldn’t find a doctor for bloodwork/advisory.

I’m going back to America if it doesn’t [explode] and I’ll be able to go see some walk in specialists there.

Overall I’d rate stuff here alright? sorta, like you can get the treatment but the medical side support is a long and winding road.

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To update, I got the medical diagnoses, a few months bloodwork, all that fun stuff. I’ve been in NYC Dec-Jan and should be scooting back next week once I figure out the [quarantine] stuff.

Overall I’m not even really sure if TW will accept a u.s diagnosis w/o still going through the TW process, though I got baselines, proper dosing amounts, and a clean bill of health so if I need to just self treat I’m confident in doing that now.

Overall, was a long detour and reminded me why I left America. It’ll be nice to be able to visit again after the pandemic though my center of life is around TW and JP.

As an update to [international hormone quest]

The u.s diagnosis was accepted, I’m on local scripts from the medical university hospital.

Overall I’d rate it worth it to be registered and in system, it’s also a lot cheaper here so within the year I’ll of made back what I spent on the whole, travel thing.

I could of done without the 21 day quarantine but, I chose this.

The experience with the hospital was very nice, they don’t have anyone that specializes in this stuff so I got sent over to the gynocology department. We spent awhile looking up medical coding and what specifically I was to be prescribed.

Taiwan does have much more limited options, or if there’s compounding clinic/doctors I haven’t found them. So i.e [no injections, no patches, only one type of estrogen, basically what they use for menopause.]

So to answer the question, if you have a u.s diagnosis you should be fine just emailing a hospital and getting on the books over here.

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Hey, mtf here and found this post while searching for HRT options in Taiwan.
Do you happen to remember the name of the pharmacy? thanks so much

I’ve been to several pharmacies over the years and haven’t been turned down or questioned. As long as you have the names of what you want in Chinese you should be fine. The usual MTF drugs will be available at any decent pharmacy, they are all commonly used for other purposes.

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