Ever since learning to deal with my own #perimenopause story, this has been on my mind, and it makes me angry. Voting to empower politicians who deny #GenderAffirmingHealthcare for #TransYouth is a mistake, especially for women. Did you know that Boomer women had really easy access to hormone replacement therapy? Pre-2002, it was widely accepted that #HRT was the best way to treat the symptoms of #peri and post #menopause. We now know that the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study was flawed. The study is easy to find online if you want to read it, but what you need to know is that the mean age of the women studied was 62, they were long past menopause and already had higher risk for things like heart disease, breast cancer, and dementia. After it was published in 2002, the influence of this study meant that doctors applied the breast cancer risk results to ALL women, regardless of age or other health issues. For the past 20 years this has been needlessly scaring Gen X women into avoiding HRT or taking as little as possible, for the shortest amount of time. As of 2022, the North American Menopause Society is now acknowledging the pitfalls of this study, and recognizing the importance of potentially starting HRT during perimenopause, for optimal heart, bone, and #MentalHealth throughout the rest of our lives. The current understanding is that the benefits of HRT far outweigh the risks. Being #Perimenopausal or being #Transgender can cause an array of debilitating physical and mental symptoms, with the most severe being TW/S* and TW/S* ideation. The risk is higher for women between the ages of 45 and 54 who are not on HRT and higher for transgender youth who are denied gender affirming health care. So here’s my point: If you are a woman who benefits from potentially life saving hormone replacement therapy, yet you believe in denying that same life saving therapy to transgender people, you need to realize that that opens the door to legislate away YOUR rights to HRT as well. For many women, you may cast your vote based on what affects you. If you think gender affirming care doesn’t, you might want to re-think that stance. TL;DR - HRT is not just for gender affirming care, and if you vote solely based on the intent to keep it away from trans youth, you might end up keeping it away from cis gendered women as well. And in the future, that may be you.