Facing hormone shortages, South Africa’s trans men try black market
KIM HARRISBERG SOUTH African tech adviser Josh Stols felt a wave of euphoria when his doctor handed over his first testosterone prescription, allowing him to finally start his physical transition as a transgender man after a year of psychiatric assessments. He was looking forward to starting a new chapter until he discovered that testosterone supplies often ran short - an issue that has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic - pushing him and other desperate trans men to seek risky, black market hormones. "These shortages mess with our sense of self," 29-year-old Stols told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview…