Report: Children may be able to buy cross-sex hormones online without prescription

Miceli said told The Center Square that “gender-confused kids should not be able to purchase potent, experimental medications with just a few simple clicks.”

“From websites listing online vendors across the globe to marketplaces for ‘homebrewed’ hormones, we found a multitude of troubling pathways that appear to bypass basic safeguards and regulatory oversight,” Miceli said.

“These hormones carry significant risks, including effects that can be irreversible,” Miceli said.

Miceli said that he and Do No Harm “urge the FDA and other federal agencies to investigate any potential unlawful sellers and, where appropriate, for states to do the same when their laws are being violated.”

“Protecting minors from unsafe and unregulated access to powerful cross-sex hormones must remain a priority,” Miceli said.

In its report, Do No Harm outlines a number of different online pharmacies offering hormones and distribution networks. 

For instance, DIYHRT.Market – which stands for Do It Yourself Hormone Replacement Therapy – is a database “of pharmacies and ‘homebrewers,’” according to Do No Harm, “that appear to lack proper safeguards preventing minors from accessing cross-sex hormones.”

Another website, HRT Cafe, is “a resource website listing ‘unregulated’ pharmacies and hormone vendors that do not require prescriptions.”

On its website, HRT Cafe says that the pharmacies it lists “obtain medications prepared by actual, regulated pharmaceutical manufacturers and resell them without a prescription.”

Children may even be accessing hormones from foreign vendors.

Do No Harm’s report shows that MedsMex – a Mexican pharmacy that ships to the U.S. – says on its website: “No prescription to purchase any medicines in our pharmacy. By ordering from Medsmex you are agreeing that you are only purchasing for your own personal use.”

Meanwhile, the Vanuatu-based Inhouse Pharmacy is a “foreign online pharmacy that boasts a dedicated product webpage for transgender-related drugs and states that it is ‘permitted’ to process orders without prescriptions.”

Do No Harm noted that the “inventory, payment processes, and even the domain names” of the online pharmacies it lists in the report are subject to changing.

Do No Harm also said in its report that it could not confirm that all the pharmacies it listed “lack prescription or age verification requirements,” but that several pharmacies "explicitly state that they do not require prescription to purchase their products.” 

“Use of exogenous hormones like estrogen and testosterone carries a variety of dangerous side effects, including increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and certain cancers,” the report said. 

“Children should not be exposed to these substances” without a medically justified and evidence-based reason “such as treating hypogonadism,” the report said.

Do No Harm has been vocal in the past about the dangers of providing “gender-affirming care,” including cross-sex hormones to minors, as The Center Square previously reported.