In 2014 Time announced “A turning point for transgender people” The dangerous conditions transgender people now face were probably not the progress the publication had in mind. In the USA, state legislators and even president are attacking, and in the UK JK Rowling proudly funds hate campaigns and the government has just released the Cass Review, casual and ideological reporting aimed at trans youth.
Transgender people just want to be left to their own devices and do boring things like going to the toilets, allowed to work quietlyAnd posting on social networksbut, apparently, this will not happen.
Trans joy, resourcefulness and pride are the ways of survival. So is access to transgender health information, public or private, from public on social media to private in encrypted Signal chats with disappearing messages. Transgender people rely on this information to advocate for themselves with health care providers who are often unable to meet their needs and sometimes actively resist the idea that people with lived experience may have knowledge they lack.
“People are turning science over to their doctors, who don’t know how to work with it,” said a transgender health researcher. Edge. “There is no curriculum for [trans healthcare]. They teach doctors. There's always going to be hard work for a transgender person.”
(Some of the researchers I spoke with for this article requested anonymity to protect themselves from harassment.)
Online communities can be hubs for important health information and advice based on lived experience, but without clear accountability, they can also become havens for bad actors and bad data. The line between who is safe, what is real and what is not is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Transgender people seek each other out not only through information, but also through tools to verify sources, which can be incredibly challenging in the age of AI and misinformation.
Avery Edenfield, a researcher specializing in transgender communities and communication, reported in a 2019 article that the ways in which transgender people communicate in these spaces are unique. Edenfield found that many people use the time-honored Internet practice of “tactical technical communication,” which involves sharing “medical information or instructions” based on personal experience as well as links to similar resources, a form of lay expertise. However, he also describes “tactical recommendations” that direct people to peer-reviewed professional resources.
The current predatory economy of social media, in particular, clearly rewards people for spreading fear and confusion.
Through tactical technical communication, transgender people speak directly about their own experiences and provide information based on their lives, ranging from warnings about drug interactions to suggesting questions to ask doctors. Many offer long, detailed, and continually updated guides to trans health; they are actually technical documents. Given the large number of transgender people in STEM and communications, it is perhaps not surprising that engineers and communicators are applying their talents to this field. Many of these guidelines discuss, for example, the use of gender-affirming hormones, with information about dosage and delivery methods that patients can pass on to their doctors, who may take a conservative approach that some patients feel is outdated.
TX, a transgender person from the UK who spoke to Edge via Signal, commented that after a long wait period to access medical care, “they didn't prescribe me testosterone until after March.” [2025]and even then it was too low.” The advice they accessed through online communities was extremely important when they came off that dosage.
Tactical referrals provide links to trusted and trusted resources, including research studies, gender-affirming care guidelines, provider lists, and laboratory information. Transgender people who are more comfortable reviewing scientific articles and documentation use this skill to empower others. Some of these sources may come from transgender people with lived experience, but these transgender people are also professionals with scientific, medical, and other relevant training.
Another researcher studying communication and storytelling in a health care context said: Edge“A lot of people in this community really enjoy reading all kinds of scientific papers. They are smart, dedicated, loving people who fight the good fight.”
Sometimes you need to know a person who knows a person. These networks of care, which begin with building trust through personal relationships, reflect Jane Collective lay abortion providers that operated from 1969 to 1973. Transgender people rely on word of mouth to vouch for people, disseminating information in a widely shared format that makes it nearly impossible to silence. Where one resource may fall, others will rise, ensuring that transgender people can make informed choices about their transition and overall health. capture autonomy and self-determination in a culture that wants to kill you, this is a powerful application of lay experience.
All is not well in these communities. The anonymity and pseudonymity that some participants rely on to stay safe can also hide necessary information about someone's background, especially in the case of transphobes who may try to infiltrate to further their agenda. Whether deliberately or accidentally, people can spread misinformation—the current scam economy of social media in particular clearly rewards people for spreading fear and confusion to those who are more measured and thoughtful, which is the inherent downside of the outbreak. The spread of misinformation isn't limited to bad intentions: people with good intentions sometimes share bad news too, making it all the more important to give people the tools they need to fact-check information.
A community with a deep history of body hacking and taking back control of your body believes that knowledge is power.
Moderators do their best to identify and remove misinformation or warn visitors about potentially unsafe recommendations or practices, users of several online resources said. Edge. In a closed community, some members may know each other offline or demonstrate that they can be trusted. However, these words are not always enough to protect people. Many crowdsourced documents note that they are not medical advice or a substitute for visiting a doctor, but transgender people are used to being harassed and abused in health care settings They may not feel comfortable discussing their needs openly with health care providers and relying on these resources to keep them safe.
Ultimately, these resources play an important role in a culture where power imbalances in medicine, especially when trans patients don't know if they can trust a healthcare provider, can put trans patients at risk if they don't have independent access to their health information. As trans culture and trans health standards evolve faster than medical education, a community with a deep history of body hacking and taking back control of your body believes that knowledge is power.
Q, a non-binary trans person living in the UK, spoke Edge via Signal that after battling bureaucratic red tape and NHS waiting lists, they found that providers had a very limited understanding of trans identity and relied on rigid, binaristic guidelines for gender-affirming care. “There’s also such a thing as having to prove your transness to the satisfaction of (probably cis) medical professionals just to get some boobs,” they said wryly, articulating a common problem for trans people who don’t have clearly defined binary outcomes in mind when they start taking hormones. Their understanding of the risks, benefits, and potential side effects of gender-affirming hormones, as well as awareness of the latest clinical guidelines for trans patients, were critical to conversations about their care.
Users of these spaces face another risk. Lawmakers and other policymakers citing “transgender ideology“, advocate for a world in which conversations about transgender people in any context are considered “adult materialLimiting the online presence of and access to trans culture through measures such as age verification laws designed to suppress transness itself.
Being cut off from society and having access to scientifically accurate and up-to-date medical information certainly won't stop people from becoming transgender, but it will make being transgender even more dangerous, whether that means taking medical risks without accurate information or feeling hopeless and disconnected from society. People struggling to survive deserve access to tools that will make that fight safer, whatever that looks like for them, says an OHSU-PSU School of Public Health professor. Alexis Dinnowho is herself transgender and collaborated in public guidance on risk reduction for adults using self-administered hormones.
She said Edge that “I will always try to be as open as possible, professionally and personally.” The ability to safely tinker with hormones, with accurate scientific information to support her, was important to her own gender expression and health. People in relatively privileged positions, especially since so many transgender people live on the edge of multiple identities, need to make sure that everyone can access this information.
As the community wakes up to a growing existential threat, about a dozen transgender people said: Edge that they were nervous about talking about resources that allow people to share information about trans health, even though they felt such places were more important than ever. However, most also noted that the trans underground has been the quintessential trans experience for centuries, and while the present moment may cause some to retreat into the shadows, it cannot erase the fundamental beauty, glory and joy of being trans. One person told me that being transgender was too cool to give up; Moreover, as Kew put it, “trying to legislate to end its existence simply does not succeed.” Job.”
