To start your Hormone Replacement Therapy, these are the things that you would need-

Gender-Dysphoria Certificate

The first step in starting your HRT is getting a Gender Dysphoria Certificate, Dr. Kalra also highlights how this should be your foremost concern if you are on the path to starting HRT. An opinion from a psychiatrist or psychologist is vital here. And you cannot get a GD certificate from any psychologist, you need it from a clinical psychologist. The psychologist or psychiatrist that you are consulting needs to state here that you are fit to start gender-affirming therapy and you are not suffering from any other issues that might impair your judgement or cause trouble later on. This is an extremely important step here because it is possible that there are other problems that co-exist with your gender dysphoria.
“First and foremost, we need to have an opinion from a psychiatrist or a psychologist, not any psychologist, a clinical psychologist, stating that the patient is fit to start gender-affirming therapy and is not suffering from any other issues because other psychiatrist problems can also be coexisting. This is why we need their opinion. So they need to certify that the trans person is not having any other psychiatric disorders or psychological disorders. Thus they can certify that the gender dysphoria or in-congruence treatment can be started.

Endocrinologist

Hormone Replacement Therapy is provided by Endocrinologists and for this step to start one a mental health professional has to first certify that if in case we have any other psychological or psychiatric issues , they are in control and now we can go forth with the process. After one is done with the consultation with psychologists and psychiatrists and has acquired a GD certificate, they can venture forth to getting their HRT treatment. This would include a series of tests that are recommended to you by your endocrinologist. All this is to check that you are physically fine to start with the therapy as well. The doctors want to make sure that it is safe for them to administer these hormones to you.

“We have to check whether giving hormones to this person is not going to cause any side effects. All hormones produce certain side effects but our purpose of checking is to see if they are not going to be harmed by HRT. Once we are sure that everything is fine then we go ahead and start HRT.”

After both these steps are achieved, one can safely start their journey with Hormone Replacement Therapy.