Today the featured @nytimes op-Ed is a breathless paean to testosterone use in females. “My dr tells me my red blood cell count is higher. That’s where the energy is coming from. I feel like I’m cheating the system, like I’ve found the fountain of youth.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/18/opinion/testosterone-therapy.html

The author, a lesbian, states that she doesn’t want to be a man, but wants a moustache. Other than that, her reasons for wanting T are vague. “I wanted to be bigger, stronger. I wanted the energy to run forever. I wanted to burst through my seams, to be spilling over with life.”

She describes her visit to Planned Parenthood where getting a prescription is easier than she imagined. “The doctor at Planned Parenthood leans back in her desk chair and faces me, more like a teammate than the gatekeeper I’m expecting.”

The dr. is apparently satisfied w the author’s plan for T. Without a diagnosis, with no medical issue that needs to be addressed, the author easily gets a prescription for this powerful drug based only on her desire for “virility” — and a moustache.

“She asks why I want hormone therapy, and what questions and concerns I have. She agrees with my plan for low-dose hormone therapy, prescribes me testosterone gel and tells me to apply half of a foil packet per day.”

Most of the rest of the essay is spent singing the praises of T. “My PMS becomes nearly undetectable. I save money on tampons, Midol and chocolate; I am spared the soul-searching hopelessness that overtakes me for a week of every month. I feel like I’ve found a miracle drug.”

She mentions looking forward to being “difficult to read.” “On some level, I want people to have trouble reading me. I want to insert a beat into their process, an opportunity for them to question the typical signifiers of gender. The harder it is, the better.”

This difficulty being read will be instructive and expansive. “Ideally, they will venture forth without knowing my gender, attempt some middle path of comportment that could work in either case and ultimately see that in the context of our interaction and most others,

gender doesn’t matter. Discomfort is difficult, but in this case it is productive: We are forging new pathways in our brains, learning new possibilities in our shared reality.”

Nary a mention is made of the serious possible side effects of testosterone — high cholesterol, diabetes, blood clots, and heart attacks. https://4thwavenow.com/2018/06/18/testosterone-young-females-what-is-known-about-lifelong-effects/

No ink is spent wondering about how complicated it might be to navigate life as a female with a deepened voice for the rest of one’s life. How every interaction with a new person will implicitly require an explanation.

This is irresponsible, @nytimes. When are you going to cover the other side?