The best day of Eric’s life came a few days before the worst.
After years of waiting, dozens of tests and a two-week stay in a psychiatric ward, Eric finally got his first testosterone shot. Eric is a 23-year-old transgender man from Ukraine. Assigned to female at birth, he says starting hormone therapy was a big step in his quest to become his true self.
“It was pure luck. I was euphoric, it was the moment I have been waiting for so long,” Eric, who asked not to use his last name because he is concerned about his safety, told DailyExpertNews in Chisinau, Moldova, in July.
But just days after Eric was supposed to receive the first of a series of testosterone injections at a Kiev clinic, Russia invaded Ukraine. Everything changed.
“The clinic was closed due to the danger of air raids. I had the testosterone but no way to get it [it administered]. I didn’t have the needles and there were huge shortages of everything in pharmacies, even the most basic things, because during the war there’s clearly a great need for things like syringes,” said Eric.
Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine has turned the lives of millions of Ukrainians upside down. But for Eric and many other trans people, the war has also made it much harder to be who they are.
Many lost access to essential medication and psychological help. Some were completely cut off from their communities and forced into spaces where LGBTQ people were not welcome, said the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner.
Bureaucratic issues, such as having personal documents issued under a different gender, can put them at additional risk.
Ukrainian transgender rights organization Cohort says it has helped more than 1,500 people since the start of the war by helping them move to safer areas and pay their bills. The NGO also works with shelters to ensure they have the basic supplies they need.
But the number one request Cohort has received in recent months is for help getting hormone therapy, or HRT, according to Anastasiia Yeva Domani, co-founder and executive director of Cohort.
HRT can be used by trans women, trans men and non-binary people to make their physical appearance more consistent with their gender identity. The drugs alter the body’s testosterone or estrogen hormone levels, causing physical changes that normally occur during puberty.
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