I am AFAB and pre FTM. I am moving to Kyoto, Japan in October this year. I am from India and I have my GID certificate and prescription of T. I have read that you can bring dosage of 60 days at max. So I wanted to know if there are any foreign individuals who have moved to Japan and started HRT ? My employer is providing Health insurance, so will the cost of hormones be covered in that ? Sorry I wasn't able to find latest resources on this. There is a stonewall guide but it's from 2016. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
by Careless-Dirt7281
2 comments
Can find a bunch of posts regarding HRT in Japan just by googling “HRT in Japan reddit”.
Here’s some to get you started:
https://www.reddit.com/r/JETProgramme/comments/15cusfc/ftm_alts_how_do_you_get_hrt_in_japan/
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/p5sne1/experiences_with_hrt_clinics_in_japan/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/ve300k/this_girls_experience_with_continuing_hrt_in_tokyo/ (MTF, but looks like the advice would apply for FTM.)
Basically, availability of services is good here, but get your documentation to state your correct gender *before* coming here and make sure to bring a good supply as finding a provider might take some time. The last post reported that insurance covered it if you’re getting hormones for your documented gender, so seems like there’s a shot. It’s not too expensive even without insurance though.
I don’t take testosterone myself, but looked at TRT clinics in Tokyo recently, and a lot of them put warnings that the supplies of testosterone were limited. Don’t know if that’s the case in Kyoto, but something you’ll want to research and try to secure ASAP when you come here.
Hey OP. From what I know the reassignment part and post surgery treatment for MTFs is what’s covered by insurance since 2018 I believe. The medication part though, might not be. I’m not an expert here, so take it this with a grain of salt. What I do know, is people here generally get things like PREP from India and are allowed to order the same dosage you mentioned and they pay out of pocket for that. I am assuming given that, the same probably applies to your case. I haven’t met any foreign FTMs, but there’s a sizeable number of Japanese FTMs here. Maybe when you get here, you can try and link up with the community and they can give you some helpful tips, depending on your Japanese language skills that is. Japan and LGBTQ support services is a gray area, but I gotta say they’re really trying to implement some progressive changes. Good luck with the move!