There are many people making the move to change their gender but it comes with a cost.
In Tanzania, it could cost as much as $100 a month to take the injections needed to alter your hormones to change the body.
A trans person transitioning to become a man has told the BBC that it is costing her $100 a month to get the two shots of hormones needed to change the body.
There are other extra costs though required in traveling to facilities were the shots are available.
Not all African countries have such services and that also comes with traveling challenges due to confusion over gender status.
The trans gender person who spoke to the BBC said “My passport says female. Every time I travel I am stripped naked to confirm my gender.”
Using lavatories belonging to their lavatories of gender status they aspire to become comes with further questions.
“The guy was saying ‘you are a female you don’t belong to this space’. Lucky for me I knew the bouncer so he stopped,” the trans gender person revealed to the BBC.
Such persons from the trans community in Tanzania’s main city, Dar es Salaam are now mobilizing to secure the services of a private specialist doctor to treat them.
That will mean they would not have travel outside Tanzania to get the needed shots.
Transgender people often have a gender identity or expression that differs from their natural assigned sex.
Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual.
In African not many societies support such ideas of changing naturally assigned sex. It often comes with discrimination and stigma in some instances.
Source: Africafeeds.com
