This discrimination forces some transgender individuals to
turn to self-medication, but unsupervised hormone therapy can
be very dangerous. For those who are refused coverage, there
are numerous websites where these hormones are available
without a prescription. Menon (2013) tells the story of a
transgender doctor who began self-medicating, but did not
receive the results she wanted; “I began looking weird. My
feminization was not proper and I had become fat. Depressed, I
went for counseling.” Even if these individuals are able to get
coverage, many of the transgender-related surgeries are
considered elective and are not paid for. Many of these
procedures including hormone therapy, breast
augmentation/removal, and hysterectomies are often covered
for cisgender individuals, but are denied for those who