Gender-affirming care
Injections, supplies and sharps
The part of hormone therapy that nobody teaches you, and the supplies that decide whether it goes well.
Being taught, properly
A first injection is a genuinely hard thing to do to yourself, and being handed a box with a leaflet in it is not teaching. We intend to sit down with you, go through the technique, and have you do one while someone who does this all day watches and tells you what you are doing right.
That covers both routes — subcutaneous, into the fat, and intramuscular, into the muscle — because which one you are on depends on what you were prescribed, and the technique is different. Drawing up, air bubbles, site rotation, angle, what a normal reaction looks like afterwards and what is worth a phone call: all of it.
Coming back because you have forgotten, or because it went badly, or because you want someone to watch you do it again, will be a completely normal reason to come in.
Supplies, actually in stock
The commonest failure is not advice, it is inventory: the needle you need is a special order, so you take what is on the shelf, and it is the wrong gauge or the wrong length for what you are doing.
We intend to stock the sizes that hormone therapy actually uses — separate drawing-up and injecting needles, the gauges and lengths appropriate to subcutaneous and intramuscular routes, and syringes in the volumes that match real doses.
- Drawing-up needles and injecting needles as separate items
- Gauges and lengths appropriate to both subcutaneous and intramuscular use
- Syringe volumes that match the doses actually prescribed
- Alcohol swabs, gauze and plasters
- Sharps containers, in sizes that fit in a bag and in a cupboard
- Advance quantities where the rules allow, so a trip does not mean running out
On cost
Coverage for injection supplies varies by plan and by program, and some of it is out-of-pocket for most people. We will tell you what applies to your situation rather than letting you find out at the till. What we are not going to do is publish a price list here — the rules on advertising drug prices in Ontario are strict enough that doing it properly would mean a page of prices for unrelated products, which helps nobody.
Sharps
Used needles cannot go in household waste, and for a lot of people the honest answer to “what do I do with these” has been a jar under the sink.
We intend to give you a proper container and take it back when it is full. No appointment, no questions, no charge. If you have been storing sharps in something else because nobody offered you an alternative, bring that too.
What a pharmacist here can and cannot do
Being precise about this matters more than sounding capable.
Can: teach you the technique, supply what you need, check your prescription against everything else you take, watch you do it, and answer questions afterwards.
Cannot: prescribe hormone therapy — that needs a physician or nurse practitioner. And whether a pharmacist may administer a given injection to you depends on where that specific drug sits in Ontario’s regulations, which is narrower than most people assume. We will confirm exactly what we can do before we open and say so here, rather than implying more now.
Common questions
I’m frightened of needles.
That is extremely common and it is not something you will be rushed through. Going slowly, sitting down, not watching, and taking several attempts over several visits are all normal. Some people never get comfortable doing it themselves, and there are other routes worth discussing with your prescriber.
Can someone else inject me?
A partner or friend can be taught alongside you, and often that works better than either of you working it out from a video. Bring them.
What if I hit a blood vessel, or it bruises?
Minor bleeding and bruising are common and usually not a problem. What is worth ringing about is a site that becomes hot, swollen or increasingly painful over days. We will go through the difference so you are not guessing at 11pm.
Do I need to buy supplies here?
No. Buy them wherever suits you — the teaching and the sharps return are not conditional on it. Kind Clinic and Kind Pharmacy are separate businesses under common ownership. You can fill your prescription anywhere.