Cuidado farmacêutico que transforma: relato de experiência de um futuro farmacêutico em um ambulatório trans

Abstract

Introduction: Pharmacy education often emphasizes the technical aspects of medication dispensing. However, when providing care to the transgender population, the pharmacist’s role expands, involving listening, welcoming, and continuous followup. Recent guidelines reinforce the need for inclusive practices and the pharmacist’s role as an essential member of the multidisciplinary team¹. The Transgender Outpatient Clinic of Lagarto–SE, established in 2019, is the first and only specialized service in the state, serving as a reference for access to hormones and genderaffirming medications². In this context, students experience a form of care that goes beyond technique and connects with users’ stories and expectations. Objective: To report the experience of a scientific initiation student in pharmaceutical followup of transgender individuals undergoing transition, highlighting subjective dimensions of care. Description of the Report: This report derives from the participation of Scientific Initiation students in consultations at the Transgender Outpatient Clinic of Lagarto–SE. Pharmaceutical practice is divided between medication dispensing and clinical followup, which is the focus of this experience. The followup used a structured instrument, including the question: “What do you desire or expect from your medication treatment?”, integrating technical aspects with subjective experiences and expectations regarding identity and gender affirmation. In one consultation, a user reported the desire to “see in the mirror what they had always seen inside,” showing that hormones transcend the biomedical dimension, materializing identities historically denied. The autonomous use of intensified doses, such as doubling tablets or anticipating applications, reflects not only the search for clinical effectiveness but also the urgency to align body and essence. Although risky, this practice reveals the symbolic value of hormones as markers of belonging, hope, and transformation. Contact with these reports allowed the understanding that each medication carries subjective meanings, desires, and accumulated anxieties. It is important to recognize that not every transgender person requires hormone therapy to affirm their identity; being transgender is not defined by medication use. Conclusion: For many individuals, access to hormones also represents access to versions of themselves that for so long existed only in imagination and desire, waiting for the moment to gain body and form. Democratizing this access, with safety and qualified followup, constitutes a commitment of pharmaceutical care. Thus, pharmacy reaffirms itself as a space for listening, welcoming, and transformation, where science and humanity meet to reveal in the body what has always flourished internally. Throughout this experience, I realized that the student who entered that Thursday was no longer the same. Within me, technique met listening, and the pharmacist who emerged from this encounter learned clinical practice with humanity. I discovered that, in care, one also flourishes: transforming lives also means allowing oneself to be transformed.