I'm looking to relocate to Minneapolis in 2027 from a small conservative military town in Florida. As a part of my research for moving, I'd love some help understanding how HRT currently works in Minnesota. Here in FL the law changes every 6 months or so but currently as an adult you only need an informed consent form, though some practices require a history with a mental health professional. Not that it matters, since after threats from the federal and state gov there is only one practice with 2 doctors who prescribe testosterone for transmasc patients. Both are endocrinology specialists, which is neat but expensive.
How is gender affirming care in Minneapolis? Are providers limited by any specific regulations (besides testosterone itself being regulated federally)? Are there any best doctors you recommend for testosterone? Are there general practitioners who can prescribe it, or only specialists? Do most workplace insurances cover it in Minnesota? Have pharmacies given you trouble? What are the waitlists like? I'm expecting to need to get on a waitlist petty much as soon as I have a start date for a new job, that way I avoid having to go on my backlog for too long.
Any practitioners I should specifically avoid?
Additionally, rumor has it Minneapolis has a community center for LGBTQ people. Is that true? Are there trans-specific spaces I should go for community? Discord servers I could join? Where I currently am you kind of have to know someone who knows someone to find the community spaces because no one wants to end up in the local news, lol
Gender affirming care in the twin cities is really good imo! Trans healthcare rights are very well protected legally. Any general practitioner can prescribe HRT with informed consent (someone else correct me if I'm wrong here - I was able to easily transfer my HRT care from GA to MN with informed consent). All employer and state insurance is required to cover trans healthcare (ie HRT, gender affirming surgery). Your wait to establish care as a new patient may be a month or 2 depending on where exactly you go. I currently see Dr. Guimont at Health Partners Nokomis clinic and highly recommend him. Smiley's clinic with MHealth Fairview is also okay.
That's so beautiful, I was on a list for 8 months before I could see one of only 2 providers in a reasonable radius who do it with insurance. God it's gonna be great moving there
Hi! I’m a trans man in Minneapolis, and I have many transmasc friends here as well. Gender affirming care is pretty accessible here. As far as I know, any doctor who can write prescriptions can prescribe T. Most places do “informed consent” model and don’t require silly hoops or therapy boot camps. Me and my friends get it through our general providers. There are a few clinics that are more geared towards trans healthcare (Family Tree, Smiley’s, PP) but generally most clinics are fine. Nobody I know has been on a waitlist for hormones, but there is a wait for surgeries (depending on what you’re getting). State insurance is required to cover gender affirming care, but most private insurance covers it too. Me and my partners have 100% coverage on hormones and surgeries, but some plans there is out of pocket. Pharmacies are only weird about T because it’s a controlled substance, my transfem friends don’t have issues with their E. I would suggest using your clinic’s pharmacy or Costco as it will be cheapest and easiest there, and places like Walgreens & CVS are a pain to refill any script. Of course there’s always a chance you run into a transphobe at one of these places, but I’ve yet to see it or hear about it. Most people are just trying to get through their shift. Minneapolis does have Queermunity, which is a nice place to queer events, but you can search this sub and see the plethora of other places queer people hang out. I know there is a discord server but I’m not sure what it is. We have a very high percentage of transgender people here and it’s not hard to find your own community once you get settled. I hope that answers everything clearly enough!
This is awesome and very refreshing to hear, thank you so much!
Of course! I hope to see you around :)
Hello!
Trans man on T here. I go to Family Tree Clinic (a clinic here geared towards trans healthcare), I've lived here since March 2024 and never had a wait-list or setback for hormones or care. I did informed consent. They were quickly and easily accessible to me and pharmacies have never given me any trouble. I did have to wait a few months to get top surgery but that's pretty standard from what I understand (and that was not because you have to wait as some standard or anything, they were just booked several months out. I did also get a letter from my therapist recommending me for surgery but that wasn't difficult, and lots of therapists up here do those for free. But all told I paid like 3k for surgery, so, worth it) -- plus my surgery team was phenomenal and my results are great.
Also, I highly recommend Family Tree! They can do sliding scale payments based on your income and the providers are AWESOME. Lots of queer folks on staff, and I've always felt very safe and welcomed there.
i second Family Tree. i'm a trans man living here for almost 10 years now. i've been at Family Tree since 2017 and they're great. incredibly resourceful, trans specific care, sex positive, etc. i'm not sure what wait lists are like anymore since i did have to wait a few months back in 2017 to get on hrt. never had any issues with doctors or pharmacies though Family Tree.
i've also had all my transition surgeries here, and my insurance covered all of my hysto and top surgery, with my current insurance covering most of my bottom surgery. really no trouble with insurance or getting the needed letters for the surgeries. haven't dealt with any transphobia from doctors here, at least nothing i can remember.
congrats on your journey to get here, MN is a great place to be.
Congrats to you, too! Thank you for the input, it's really refreshing to see multiple options and decently covered care
Lived in Minneapolis suburbs my whole life, I'm going through the Planned Parenthood in Eden Prairie right now and it's been super easy. Got an appointment there within a week of looking to schedule it, everything was just informed consent and I got my T prescription on the first appointment, there was no real wait at all aside from the week it took after that for my insurance to authorize the prescription. I'm under my dad's insurance which is through his work and it covered it fine, and I believe state insurance is legally required to cover it though I'm not certain if that's true for employers as well.
Yes employer insurance providers are required to cover gender affirming care
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/Publications/TransRights.asp
Honestly Planned Parenthood will probably be what we go with, at least to start out and prevent a prescription gap while we find primary providers. Thank you!
There is a clinic in Minneapolis, and you should be able to get in fairly quickly!
If you are looking for more care than hormones, I would recommend eventually switching to a full gender care program. M Health has one, North Memorial, and Park Nicollet.
Fairview smileys has a great clinic, I and our housemate go through them, the Fairview system is very big and interconnected. You can go through them for all aspects easily like I am just be aware that there is quite a wait for some stuff. If your look8ng for a place we have a room available for 650mo plus 100 for utilities. Shoot me a message if your interested.
Thank you! We won't be ready to move for another year or two but I'll be back on this page when the time comes, I'm sure
It’s pretty easy to get trans healthcare here! I called the HealthPartners branch before moving to the area to ask about HRT, and they gave me a whole list of primary care physicians who have extra expertise in trans patients.
And - because this is normally rare to find so it was a big deal to me - you can get testosterone pellet implants from the HealthPartners/Park Nicollet gender clinic in Minneapolis! Not many people get the pellets, but if that’s something you’re interested in, rest assured it’s an option! I was gearing up to make an 8 hour round trip 3-4 times per year to stay on the pellets, so it was a major relief to find that Minneapolis has them.
And even though it’s generally harder to get the pellets approved by insurance, I’ve been able to get them approved by 4 insurance companies so far. One put up a bit of a fight but we still got it covered, and I’ve never once had an issue getting covered for more common forms of HRT (like shots).
Wow yeah I'd never even heard of the pellets. Doesn't sound like my thing but it says a lot that it's an option
Yeah, since healthcare is one of MN’s big industries, seems like there’s a lot more options available.
I will sing the praises of testosterone pellet implants until my dying day haha. The convenience of only thinking about T a few times per year and the steadier release of hormones (which makes mood far steadier) were game changers for me. But I get why they’re not everyone’s cup of tea ahah.
In general, outstate/rural MN is pretty red, but the Twin Cities are deeper blue than the ocean, so metro MN is a good place to be as a trans person. And “Minnesota Nice” is definitely a thing - most people are quite nice and neighborly.
Minneapolis is very artsy with more of a nightlife, if that’s your thing. And St. Paul is quieter if that’s your preference. :)
Definitely artsy nightlife! Excited by the prospect of an actual music scene and more than 2 queer bars, haha. My partner and I are both artsy people, into music shows, interested in being in our 20s without stifling local politics making everything less safe for us
Minneapolis would be a great place for you then! Very artsy in both visual and performing arts! Good music scene :)
I’m a bit of a homebody personally so don’t have a ton of firsthand experience, but Loring Park in Minneapolis is a decently well known gayborhood with a solid nightlife :)
Lots of green space in the Twin Cities too!
I got my doctor to help me find someone who specializes in transgender medicine. Got an appointment, told him I wanted to transition. He only talked to me about the effects it will have or could have because I asked. I signed a document saying I understood what HRT was and what it will do to me. He had me do a set of blood tests on my way out the door. I went and headed to the pharmacy for the pills and started. The longest part of all of this was waiting to get that first appointment with the internist who does trans medicine, which was like a week or so.
Sent you invites to two discord servers. One is trans MN and the other is trans masc specific
Yeah! Its called Queermunity and they actually have a regular trans masc meetup!
Signal boost. Everybody has covered the HRT question pretty well, and yes, I came here to plug Queermunity as well. There is also the aliveness project, which started in the 80s as a way to facilitate housing for people living with AIDS, and has continued to evolve into an organization that looks after the needs of the most vulnerable queer people in our community. If you need a food shelf or a pointer to other resources, aliveness can help. Black Hart is also notable as one of our best queer bars, and is far more gender-diverse in my experience than a lot of more traditional “gay“ bars. I’m a trans woman, but when I go out with my trans masc friends, that’s where we tend to go
As someone who moved here from florida, it was easy. No need to get 1k referrals. Have several gender affirming clinics including planned parenthood. No need for psyc evaluation or mental health screening. They even have programs to help with coverage if your insurance wont pay for meds.
I literally simply told my primary care doctor that I was trans at an unrelated follow-up for some other condition, and left with a prescription for HRT.
Queermunity is the queer community center, and they're great also. I've been connected with several resources through events they've held.
We're probably the most trans city in the entire USA. (We're not called t-slur-apolis for no reason 😹)
Trans masc St. Paul here. If youre looking to meet and get support I love group therapy at Transendhttps://transcendpsychotherapy.com/ Usually a waitlist but if you put your name on the list its normally only a couple of months.
Moved here from TX in July. I see Katherine Roselius for my PCP and she prescribed it no problem and referred me to the gender clinic in the HealthPartners/ Park Nicollet system which is great bc all the doctors communicate in one system. She also asked if I still have my uterus and asked, “when do you want to take it out?” based on my reaction, and apparently it’ll be super easy to do when I can get time off.
I’m horribly inconsistent with shots thanks to adhd and with insurance here I’m able to get xysoted (a pen that’s pre-drawn) for $35/month vs over $1,000/ month. Haven’t missed a shot in 2 months.
I just made the move last summer so if you need any other specific questions answered feel free to DM. If you’re working on funding your move I HIGHLY recommend you check out Keshet and the Hebrew Free Loan Society, they made the difference for us, and we are not Jewish. They just know what a genocide looks like and stepped up to help people flee.
These are really great recommendations, thank you! And dang talk about a "you know it's bad when" moment
planned parenthood is awesome for cheap HRT. lots of people are mentioning family tree clinic and they are amazing as well, ive been going to them for a few years now and have nothing bad to say.