You're telling me you can just go to a Walgreens in the USA and get a bag of estrogen and start injecting it without the advice and monitoring of a doctor? Even though hormone replacement therapy can lead to all kinds of problems? Is this normal?
> Not long after, I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops, and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy
But if you encounter someone along the way who doesn't want to co-operate, you might need to redo those steps. It's really rather difficult, depending on where you are.
> and subsequently found myself cycling home from the pharmacy with a paper bag filled with repurposed menopause medication
and then no mention after of monitoring of health effects?
> I had jumped through the relevant bureaucratic hoops
(It should be, in my opinion--I don't believe in third parties with no stake making forced decisions for you for what can and can't enter your body--but as someone for whom this is lived experience, you can't do this, especially not at a Walgreens and not without getting LFTs and hormone levels done regularly.)
And yes, the black market is huge - anyone with google and the ability to purchase crypto can get it easily delivered, either domestically, or from china.
Go chug a quarter of a McBurgerStan sized bottle of Tylenol available at near every cornerstore in our country and you’ll literally fucking die a harrowing death. I do not even mildly see your point. Quite frankly those against open access to all medicine need to die. The harm a lack of accessibility causes to society at large is incalculable, because the disabled go unseen rotting away in their homes – if they’re so lucky to even have that.