How much do you spend on HRT?

Healthcare is weird, when I was in college, I went to my school’s Student Health Center for HRT, they gave me a 10 mL vial (20 doses for me) for $40, no insurance because I wasn’t out yet and the needles were free.

When I moved for grad school, I switched providers and started using my family’s insurance. My first prescription got held because they needed prior authorization. I had already been off my dose for some weeks at that point, so I asked how much it would cost to just pay out of pocket. $350 for 2mL. The pharmacist was very nice and gave me a discount code to make it $150, and I think the needles were another $10. It was insane. After my insurance started paying it ended up being around $10 for 2mL, and I started bulk buying needles and syringes online.

Now I’ve moved again, started a full time job, gotten new insurance and a new prescription from a new doctor. I knew that I needed to do the whole prior authorization dance again, so I went in expecting to have to pay another huge amount again. It was $28 for 4mL with no insurance. I’m gonna get prior authorization stuff worked out later this month, but it’s definitely not as terrifying as it was when I heard $350 lol.

I’m curious how much people pay in comparison. I work in academia and would definitely be interested in researching the financial impacts of transitioning someday. I’ve also been debating swapping to patches or gel, so I’d love to hear from people who take various types of HRT!