Transgender Community Health Section
Medical centres where transgender people are made to feel welcome are scarce in South Africa. The Queer Wellness Centre (QWC) aims to address this gap by offering holistic services to transgender people that are supportive and understanding of their unique needs. We help transgender, gender nonconforming, and non-binary adults access to the highest quality gender affirming medical care.
QWC offers experienced doctors as well as referrals to specialists such as plastic surgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists, endocrinologists in support of our transgender patients. We hope that our clinic will help to quicken the pace of what can be a very long and bureaucratic journey.
1. Hormone Therapy
a. Getting started on transition Hormone therapy In Johannesburg
Transgender hormone therapy is when sex hormones and other hormonal medications are administered to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals to assist them with more closely aligning their secondary sexual characteristics with their gender identity. This form of hormone therapy is given as one of two types, based on whether the goal of treatment is to become a transgender woman or a transgender man:
- The impact of your gender identity at work, school, home and social environments, including issues related to discrimination, relationship abuse and minority stress
- Mood or other mental health concerns
- Sexual health concerns
- Risk-taking behaviors, including substance use and use of nonmedical-grade silicone injections or unapproved hormone therapy or supplements
- Protective factors such as social support from family, friends and peers
- Your goals, risks and expectations of treatment and your future plans for your care
b. Hormone level checks
Before starting hormone therapy, your doctor will evaluate your health to rule out any medical conditions that might affect or contraindicate treatment. This evaluation might include:
- A review of your personal and family medical history
- A physical exam, including an assessment of your external reproductive organs
- Lab tests measuring your lipids, blood sugar, blood count, liver enzymes, electrolytes and the hormone prolactin
- A review of your immunizations
- Age- and sex-appropriate screenings
- Identification and management of tobacco use, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections
- Discussion about sperm freezing or egg freezing
You might also need a mental health evaluation by a provider with expertise in transgender health. The evaluation might assess:
- Your gender identity and dysphoria
- The impact of your gender identity at work, school, home and social environments, including issues related to discrimination, relationship abuse and minority stress
- Mood or other mental health concerns
- Sexual health concerns
- Risk-taking behaviors, including substance use and use of nonmedical-grade silicone injections or unapproved hormone therapy or supplements
- Protective factors such as social support from family, friends and peers
- Your goals, risks and expectations of treatment and your future plans for your care
c. Hormone Injection Assistance at QWC
Hate needles? We’re good at handling pricks. Bring your hormones.
If you have an aversion to needles we are more than happy to administer your injections for you