What to Expect on Your First Visit and Beyond

Click here for a PDF with important information about your Gender Affirming Hormone Care appointment.

Before your first visit, please call or schedule an appointment online for gender affirming hormone care. In addition to scheduling, you may receive important information unique to the health center you will be visiting (such as parking directions).  

We hope you understand that your safety is our top priority. Occasionally, police officers are in our parking lot to ensure that you can access our health center safely, without being harassed by anti-abortion protesters. 

We strongly encourage patients to register for our Patient Portal prior to their first visit and to use online check-in to improve privacy during the check-in process. If you book your appointment online, we encourage you to call us to provide your email address and initiate the Patient Portal registration process. Also note that all patients are asked to provide some basic information regarding income at check-in to determine eligibility for grants and other resources. 

At your visit you will not be asked to change into a medical gown or have an exam, unless you request an exam for a particular concern. Other testing, such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection or cervical cancer, may be recommended, but are not required. 

A clinician will work with you to determine a hormone prescription plan (types of medications and route of administration) to best meet your needs. In most cases your clinician will be able to send a prescription to your pharmacy the same day as your visit. A letter from a mental health provider is not required. 

A typical initial visit will likely take 1-2 hours. Follow-up visits are generally shorter. 

We ask that you do not bring children to your visit. We know that this is sometimes unavoidable and we will do our best to provide you the care you need, while ensuring the safety of you and everyone in our health centers. 

We require all people to wear a mask while in the health center. You will be screened for COVID symptoms and exposure when you arrive. If you have any COVID-19 symptoms or have recently been exposed, please cancel and reschedule your appointment when the situation has resolved. 

If you are starting hormone therapy, in your first year of care, you should plan for 4 visits, with blood work taken at your:

• First appointment, 
• 3-month follow-up, 
• 6-month follow-up, and 
• 12-month follow-up. 

Frequency of visits may change based on your medical history, your medications, and the results of your blood tests. Repeat blood work is usually recommended 3 months after medication dose adjustments. After the first year of hormone use, most patients are seen and have blood work annually. 

We use the patient portal as our preferred route of communicating with patients regarding lab results.