Healthcare Resources and HRT for the Transgender Community in Alabama and Alaska

Hi Everyone,

You know that we want you to be healthy and safe.  To help you with your health care journey we are creating a list, by state, of health care organizations that serve the transgender, nonbinary, gender queer and non-conforming community.  While we are creating this site for you, we are also doing this weekly post on health care.  While it’s nice to have a list, in these posts we can also give  you a few details on what each of the organizations we post actually do.  We’ll just go through the states alphabetically, unless you send us a note and request a particular state and we’ll move requests to the top of the list.

Some state have lots of resources and we’ll let you know as best we can where in the state the resources are located.  Other states don’t have as many resources.  So the number of states we post each week will vary.  Sometimes it will be a post about one or two states with lots of resources and sometimes it will be a post about several states with a few resources each.

This week we are looking at Alabama and Alaska.  Many resources across the country are, to their credit, creating  comfortable places for transitional medicine as well as routine proactive health maintenance and interventionary health care.  We will try to highlight what is offered in each case.

If you still can’t find the health care you need, drop us a note on FB (B.UR.SLF LLC), instagram/ twitter @burslfllc or email burslfllc@gmail.com and we will see what we can do to help.

This week we are covering resources for Alabama and Alaska.

Alabama

Magic City Wellness Center (Website – Magic City Wellness Center, FB – Magic City Wellness Center, IG – mcwcbao)

Magic City Wellness aims to be a warm and welcoming site for the LGBTQ community to receive health care.

Hormone therapy is offered for transgender people (Trans Health Care).

Primary and holistic health care are as well as sexual health care.  There is help managing chronic health conditions.  Routine screenings and screening for cancer are offered and the center aims to help clients catch conditions early.  Counseling, support groups and mental health help is available.  Magic City Wellness recently opened  Avita Pharmacy in their lobby, which makes getting prescriptions so much more comfortable and convienient.

There is ample help for  disease states including substance abuse and infectious states.

Payment Options:  Insurance and self-pay are accepted, check this link for insurance plans accepted. 

Magic City Wellness Center is located in Birmingham.

No information is given about age of patients accepted, check with the site for more information.

Thrive Alabama (Website – Thrive Alabama – LGBTQ Healthcare, FB – Thrive Alabama Florence, IG – @thrive_alabama)

Thrive Alabama offers affirming specialty care for transgender and gender nonconforming people.  They strive for an inclusive health care experience.  Their services for the LGBTQ community include gender affirming hormone therapy, physical exams and routine healthcare, acute and preventive care for sexual and common infections including PrEP, cancer screenings, consultations prior to gender affirming surgeries, care and other non-emergency conditions, chronic disease management, case management – to help overcome barriers to care, nutrition counseling and some mental health services and also dental care.

Payment Options:  Thrive gives care to all patients and payment options include insurance options and sliding payment scales for uninsured patients.

Thrive is located in Huntsville, Florence and Albertsville, but the website lists Huntsville on the page specifically dedicated ot lgbt1 healthcare.

Thrive includes pediatric health, so it is assumed they can treat children, adolescents and adults, but check with the provider for age limits on specific services.

Health Care for LGBT Veterans

Birmingham VA Healthcare System, Central Alabama VA Healthcare System (CAVHCS) and Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center  (Website – LGBT Services for Veterans – Birmingham, Centra Alabama VA Healthcare System (CAVHCS), LGBT Services for Veterans – Tuscaloosa, FB – U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, IG – @VeteranAffairs)

According to the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, Patient Care Services for LGBT veterans  includes the following (and other) services – hormone treatment, treatment and prevention of STIs/PrEP, cancer screening, prevention and treatment.  If there are questions reach out to the LGBT Veteran Care Coordinator (VCC) at the site.

VA healthcare is offered free of charge to veterans.   Veterans may have some copays.

Birmingham VA Healthcare System has (10) associated Clinics in Bessemer, Birmingham, Callahan, Childersburg, Florence, Guntersville, Huntsville, Jasper, Rainbow and Oxford.  Click the “locations and directions” link on the site for futher information

.Central Alabama VA Healthcare System has (2) campuses, CAVHCS – West in Montgomery and CAVHCS – East in Tuskegee and (4) associated clinics in Columbus, Dothan, Monroe and Wiregreass

Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center has (1) medical center in Tuscaloosa and (1) associated Clinic selma. Click the “locations and directions” link on the site for futher information.

LGBT Veteran Care is for U.S. veterans.

Alaska

QueerDoc in Partnership with Full Spectrum Health and Identity Alaska (see below) (Website – QueerDoc, FB – QueerDoc, IG – @queerdoc)

QueerDoc offers queer and gender diverse affirming medical care online.  QueerDoc offers hormone therapy, puberty blockers, PrEP, STI screening, contraception, medical and surgical referals and gender marker change consultation. – ALL ONLINE via TELEHEALTH.  Set up a free 15 minute consultation by pushing the Request Appointment button.

Payment Options:  QueerDoc through partnerships with.

Since QueerDoc is a telehealth service, QueerDoc serves ALL of Alaska.

Services from QueerDoc are open to patients of all ages.

Identity Health Clinic (Website – Identity Health Clinic, FB – Identity Inc., IG – @identityalaska)

Identity, is Alaska’s statewide online LGBTQ community which also has a community center in Anchorage.  In 2021 Indentity Inc., through Identity Healthcare and in partnership with Full Spectrum Health Care and other community partners, like QueerDoc to meet the need for more gender affirming and queer affirming healthcare.  Contact Identity for specific services, service locations and payment options.

Identity also maintains a list of LGBT friendly medical care providers that include medical providers and endocrinologists for transgender people, adults and youth.  Contact individual providers for specific services, locations and payment options.

Full Spectrum Health, LLC (Website – Gender and Sexuality Confirming Health Care, FB – Full Spectrum Health, LLC, IG – @fullspectrumhealthak)

Full Spectrum Health specializes in gender and sexuality confirming health care including HRT, post-sugery care, primary care, full range of testing and treatment for STI/ HVI inclding PrEP and PEP.

Payment Options:  Full Spectrum (and in partnership with @QueerDoc) accepts insurance.  

The Full Spectrum Health Care physical site is located in Anchorage and they partner with @QueerDoc to provide services via telehealth, including HRT to the entire state of Alaska.

Full Spectrum serves children, youth and adults, check with Full Spectrum,providers and QueerDoc for age limits on specific services.

Alaska Planned Parenthood Health Centers are part of the Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands – PPGNHI.  PPGNHI now offers Gender Affirming Hormone Care (HRT) at all 27 of their Health Centers in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and western Washington.  Alaska’s (5) Health Care Centers are located in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Soldotna.  Planned Parenthood in Alaska does not appear to have telehealth at the moment, but you may want to call the centers for an update as many centers have started telehealth to promote social distancing since the out break of Covid-19.

Payment Options:  Planned Parenthood accepts insurance and will help you work through insurance options too!  If you don’t have insurance or medicaid, some PP sites are able to offer discounted payments.  Check the link and contact PP for details.

Locations, see above.

Planned Parenthood generally offers HRT to patients 18+

About the author, Gayle M. Frankenbach, Ph.D. is the mother of a Daughter, Lise and a transgender son Elliott.  Elliott and Gayle both passionately desire to care about and care for the trans community.  Elliott and Gayle also both love the unbound creativity of the cosplay community.  When we realized there is a big overlap between the two communities B.UR.SLF, LLC was born at the interface of these two great communities to serve them individually and together.  Elliott and Gayle also enjoy running a trans son & parent business to be visible for parents on a journey to visibly support their own trans kids and be a great allies.