Paper short abstract:

Through the methods of digital ethnography, I describe the daily practices of care taking place in a Telegram chat group of Italian transgender women who undergo DIY HRT. I intend to show how this small community redefines its relationship with endocrinological knowledge and biomedical authority.

Paper long abstract:

The literature about hormones shows how hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a useful tool to change the body according to gender identity. But the withdrawal of welfare, the costs of medications (even in countries where healthcare is state funded) and the definition of transgender individuals as disordered or ill depict a scenario of institutional abandonment, precarity and stigma. Although in Italy there have been important steps toward a new and mutualist approach to transgender care by grassroots transfeminist groups, HRT is still not accessible to most.

Do-It-Yourself Hormone Replacement Therapy (DIY HRT) is a well known practice among transgender communities, yet it is often antagonized or ignored by specialists. Unsupervised assumption of hormones is regarded as non compliant and reckless, which contributes to the stigmatization of these unorthodox practices. In this sense DIY HRT is mostly silenced and secretive. Those who decide to undergo it, often benefit from the anonymity of the web to share their experiences and knowledge. Using the methods of digital ethnography, my proposal aims to describe how the transgender women of a Telegram chat group weave a network of “mediated intimacies”, creating a context of emotional, material and medical support. Although the members of this specific group claim to not have a political agenda, they find themself using often illegal and disobedient means to re-shape “cure” into “care”. In this sense, I intend to show how these care praxis challenge biomedical authority, shaping a more horizontal, accessible and promiscuous approach to care.