Informed Consent Clinics

One of the many hurdles in receiving gender-affirming care is a common requirement to have someone else evaluate you — often for a specified period of time as long as two years [PDF; page 8] — before prescribing HRT. Often this comes in the form of a letter from a therapist or physician that signs off saying they believe you should receive gender-affirming care. The most common way around this practice is via what's called Informed Consent. Effectively, Informed Consent is the understanding that you, the patient, understand the medical treatment at hand, and are able to work with your doctor knowing all the benefits and risks (hence "informed") and agree upon said medical treatment (hence "consent"). So, if you want to start receiving gender-affirming care without jumping through hoops, the Informed Consent model is the way to go.

So, where do you find a clinic that runs under the Informed Consent model? While not a complete list, this map is an extremely thorough list of all the Informed Consent models out there, brought to us by Erin. If you want to support the creator of this map, here is her Ko-fi for you to do so.