Teri Berry, a transgender woman living in Kentucky, transitioned from male to female 9½ years ago with help from hormones she procured on the Internet and gender reassignment surgery in Thailand. Where she still can’t seem to find help, though, is from physicians in Kentucky.
“One of [the physicians] said that they didn’t know enough about it to give me any hormones,” said Berry. She then found a physician in Nashville willing to prescribe hormones—until he abruptly disappeared. “I have no idea [what happened]; he just didn’t show up for another appointment,” she said. Another physician declined to provide Berry with hormones (generally an estrogen with an antiandrogen), fearing they could cause a heart attack down the road. “You go through the first or second visit, [and] they say, ‘I’m not going to do it; I don’t know enough about it.’ They don’t want to know any more about it,” said Berry.