I am a trans-masc individual, and I’ve been on testosterone since the mid-2010s which, in this story, is just under a decade.
This little adventure started due to a much longer story (which I might tell later) that meant I had to very quickly change doctors AND pharmacies in one fell swoop. The doctor I found was a bit of a drive away, but it worked out well enough. For my pharmacy, I had a choice between the previous name-brand pharmacy I’d been using, or the grocery-store pharmacy next door. Considering the name-brand store had recently started sneaking in little policies that meant any tech could just outright refuse to give me my testosterone and call it “religious reasons”, and considering I was no longer able to go to the one where the techs knew me (and I knew they wouldn’t dare do that to me), I decided to go to the pharmacy inside the grocery store.
Up to this point, the techs behind the counter had been nothing but incredible. I’d gotten flu and [global health crisis] vaccines from them, and it had been the most pleasant, quick, and easy experience, so I was kind of jazzed, actually, to be using them as my main pharmacy. After making sure the doctor’s office had the right place, I went and quickly retrieved my medications.
Issue one was… immediate. With testosterone, there are options for what essentially amounts to packaging: you can get several little 1-ml vials or one big, 10-ml vial, mostly depending on what your insurance likes and what your doctor thinks you need. My doctor had told me specifically (because I asked!) that I’d be getting the 10-ml vial, which I was also stoked about; storing a bunch of the little vials is a pain since they’re so small and made of glass and the big one tends to be a little cheaper. Color me surprised when the tech behind the counter handed me a bag with TEN of the 1-ml vials. Not what the doctor ordered, actually, at all.
Considering the state I live in and that the answer to any complaint was to take the medication BACK in some capacity, I said nothing and went on my way. The point was that I got the same amount of medication, and I knew my dosage from the tiny bottles, so it was, at best, inconvenient but not the end of the world. Especially since it probably was some quibble with insurance that they couldn’t work around, and ESPECIALLY since I had to exit my previous doctor due to a refusal to fill my meds (again, longer story), so I wasn’t about to be a choosy beggar and get nothing from it. So, I went home.
The other thing to note about my meds was that I was doing intramuscular injections, so I needed both the actual medication and needles. Specifically, I’d need two needles per vial with the dosage I was taking (which was half the vial per shot). But, surprise, surprise, halfway through my supply, my spouse told me that I was out of needles. I figured it to be a “Whoops!” where someone had miscounted, which happens, so I trundled down to the grocery store’s good old pharmacy to grab a couple more. No big deal.
I very quickly explained to the tech that I needed a couple more needles based on the script in their system, and her face fell. Uh-oh. She told me she needed to get the pharmacist. I said sure, because maybe it was a system thing to prevent people from seeking needles for illicit reasons, so I wasn’t going to buck needing to speak to the person in charge. When she appeared, I pleasantly explained the same thing to the pharmacist, who gave me an odd look.
Pharmacist: “You’re only supposed to puncture those vials once.”
Now, this? This is a myth. How do I know it’s a myth? Because over the decade I’ve spent store-buying my gender, I have asked EVERY doctor, pharmacist, pharmacy tech, nutritionist (this was my first script giver at Planned Parenthood; I do not make a habit of asking nutritionists about hormones), and medical tech I’ve encountered this question. Most laugh in my face because they honestly think I’m joking — no professional in their right mind with any experience with this medication would think you can only puncture it once. The vials have that weird self-healing rubber membrane thing, so there’s no reason you can’t. Only one other medical professional has ever even put some stake in the idea that you can’t puncture the vials twice, and he was also clearly transphobic (again, part of the longer story), so I trust him about as far as I can throw him — I have the arm strength of a toddler and he was a big dude.
The other reason I know this is because my doctor, the one giving me the medical advice, prescribed me TWO DOSES PER BOTTLE; clearly, she intended that I puncture it twice. She honestly wanted me to puncture the same kind of vial (same manufacturer), just bigger, TWENTY times.
I wasn’t about to argue medical bull with the pharmacist, however, since I am just a lowly peon who doesn’t have a degree, and therefore, clearly, she wouldn’t take my word for things. Especially since she was looking at me like I’d just pulled my mask down and hacked up a glob of snot on her counter. So, I pulled a different tactic and evoked the only higher power I thought she would listen to.
Me: “My doctor prescribed me two doses per bottle, so I’m going to need the needles to match.”
Pharmacist: “I only gave you ten needles because the manufacturer says you’re only supposed to puncture it once.”
Me: “So, you’re going to refuse to fill my entire script, which my doctor specifically prescribed?”
Pharmacist: “You’re only supposed to puncture it once.”
This went back and forth for roughly ten minutes, so I’ll save you the runaround. Nothing I said changed her tune. My decade of experience with this exact process? Nope. My doctor’s specific instructions? Nope. I considered asking her where the manufacturer got their medical license, but I didn’t think that would get anywhere since she was already acting like she was smarter than the specialist who had been doing this exact bit for decades. The only expression and tone she could manage was one that considered me to be the grossest human alive, because how could I be so UNSANITARY and not just throw half of my relatively expensive medication in the trash without using it because the manufacturer, who is not a doctor, said to? Eventually, realizing that we were going to go around in circles because she had no answer but “don’t do that”, I asked if they’d fill a script for needles if I got one, and they reluctantly said yes, though I don’t think they thought I would get one.
I thanked them — politely — and left. In the car on the way home, I called my doctor’s office. The woman on the phone mostly understood what I was asking about — she wasn’t a medical professional, so that’s fair — and when she couldn’t get a medical tech on the line, she took a note for me and told me she’d pass it on.
My script was in within a few days. I never even needed to talk to a medical professional. The office saw the note and fixed it without needing to hear more, which says A LOT. I imagine if there was actually an issue about puncturing things multiple times, they would have at least wanted to call and speak to me — especially since I also explained that I’d been given the medication in a different packaging — but clearly, the message the woman on the phone left was more than enough for an immediate fix. I don’t necessarily want to call the pharmacist transphobic, considering the saying, “Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained with ignorance,” and calling her an idiot is kinder, but I can’t ever be sure. It’s the Bible Belt; they’re EVERYWHERE.
I only wish she’d been the one to fill my script for needles so I could have told her explicitly that I was about to use my second dose. But I haven’t seen her since.
I do hope the doctor’s office got a laugh out of it, at least.
