‘Word on the street’ leads teens to Planned Parenthood for ‘easy’ hormone access

Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of cross-sex hormones in the nation, and it is easy for a young person to obtain these drugs quickly and with few questions — according to the word on the street… and the internet.

Planned Parenthood, the national corporation known for killing hundreds of thousands of preborn human beings in the U.S. each year, prescribes hormones on an “informed consent” basis, requiring no medical diagnosis or a referral from a medical doctor, and handing out prescriptions for cross-sex hormones at the request of young people – even minors in some states – after single, half-hour consultations.

Detransitioner Cat Cattinson was prescribed a double dosage of testosterone over the phone after a 30-minute call; Cristina Hineman and Helena Kerschner both obtained prescriptions for testosterone at age 18 from Planned Parenthood clinics after brief initial consultations with the staff. But they’re not the only ones who found these hormones easy to get.

A ‘nightmare’ in the making

Journalist Jennifer Block, who explained to Live Action News via email that she is “100% FIRMLY pro abortion without restriction,” investigated for several months how Planned Parenthood has become one of the largest suppliers of testosterone for women. Block is a former Ms. Magazine editor and contributor to other left-leaning media outlets including The Nation, Mother Jones, and Elle.  

In an interview with Rebel News last year, Block said, “I had heard through several sources that Planned Parenthood was known, kind of on the street, among young people as a place to go if you’re a teen… you can walk in and out with hormones — that was kind of the word on the street.”

Block confirmed this during her investigation. She wrote for The Free Press in August of 2024: 

In less than a decade, [Planned Parenthood has] become the country’s leading provider of gender transition hormones for young adults, according to insurance claim data. In 2015, around two dozen of their clinics began offering this service.

Now it’s available at nearly 450 locations. Insurance claim information provided by the Manhattan Institute shows that at least 40,000 patients went to Planned Parenthood for this purpose last year alone [2023], a number that has risen tenfold since 2017.

The largest proportion, about 40 percent, were 18-to-22-year-olds.

Block related in her interview with Rebel News that Planned Parenthood donors and supporters were “pretty surprised” to learn that Planned Parenthood was “the largest single provider of cross-sex hormones for young people under the age of 28.”

She spoke with a former Planned Parenthood executive who had helped draft the initial “Gender Affirming Care” guidelines for Planned Parenthood; according to Block, the former Planned Parenthood exec was shocked to realize that the corporation’s guidelines had evolved to the point of allowing young people cross-sex hormone prescriptions after single, 30-minute conversations.

“If people are not fully informed and prepared, she said, it could be a nightmare,” Block recalled.

‘Word on the street’: Social media brings hormone customers to Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood sells cross-sex hormones as a golden ticket to confused young people’s dreams of contentment and fulfillment. The corporation promotes its advertisements mainly on the internet.

Planned Parenthood’s websites, social media pages, and “sex-ed” videos are filled with disturbing and misleading transgender propaganda, grooming children to be promiscuous and to reject biological sex, love, and commitment. Through its content, Planned Parenthood even normalizes the idea of people being “multigender” and “changing genders” whenever they want, based on their feelings on any given day. 

Cristina Hineman, as a lonely and autistic teenager, found her way to Planned Parenthood through Tumblr. “I had heard online about Planned Parenthood as a provider which will just give you hormones if you want them, and doesn’t do any kind of gatekeeping,” Hineman said. Unfortunately, what she found out online was correct, and by the end of her “transition journey,” Hineman found herself with irreversible damages to her health: missing breasts, a scarred and tight chest, nerve damage, masculine body and facial hair, an inability to lift weights, and more.

Helena Kerschner also found her way to Planned Parenthood via Tumblr because other teenagers had discovered that Planned Parenthood easily gives out hormone prescriptions. “I had heard raving things about Planned Parenthood from people on Tumblr,” Helena wrote on her blog. Planned Parenthood prescribed the 18-year-old four times the dosage of testosterone normally given to other women, at the teen’s request. Due to the testosterone, Helena experienced a mental illness so severe that it led her to attempt suicide and landed her in the ER.

Influencers on social media help point other young people questioning their gender to Planned Parenthood, and talk about their experiences getting the hormones they wanted without any proper medical barriers.

“Planned Parenthood does not require you to have seen a therapist…or have a diagnosis for gender dysphoria. You basically just talk about it in the room at the doctor’s office and they will say, ‘Okay yeah, you clearly have gender dysphoria,’” said one influencer on Tik Tok.

Another Tik Tok influencer discussed getting testosterone through Planned Parenthood right after the initial consultation, on the same day:

All I physically had to do was check my height, weight, blood pressure, and they drew my blood for anemia for some reason… After that, they pretty much just went over the side effects and the info concerning testosterone.

They were super cool to give me a demonstration on how to prepare and inject my testosterone. After that, though, I signed a consent form and they talked to my local pharmacy and I pretty much had my prescription ready for pick-up right after my consultation… I got it the same day as my appointment.

“I got [hormones] through informed consent with Planned Parenthood, which is the easiest way you can get it in America…Informed consent more or less just means you say, ‘I am of sound mind and I would like this.’ So you don’t have to get like a note from like a psychiatrist,” said one YouTuber.

Some responses to a Reddit thread also suggest that Planned Parenthood plays fast and loose when it comes to dealing out cross-sex hormones.

“No need for any psychological evaluation”

“Walked out of my first appointment with an E and Spiro prescription.”

“Even walked in with a panic attack and no appointment…”

“It’s pretty easy to get done”

“I had a prescription within a few hours…”

Planned Parenthood poses a danger to youth

Planned Parenthood is selling hormones on a large scale across the United States and harming tens of thousands of young people each year to fill its coffers. Planned Parenthood looks to recruit life-long customers, who feel dependent on Planned Parenthood’s drugs and abortions. To sell its damaging and life-taking “services,” Planned Parenthood promotes dangerous sexual ideologies through its own warped brand of sex education, sells abortions, and sells so-called “gender-affirming care.”

Planned Parenthood preys upon the most vulnerable–helpless preborn babies, confused teenagers, and young people struggling with mental health illnesses including autism and depression.

In doing these things, Planned Parenthood harms society as a whole – using taxpayer dollars. It is time to defund Planned Parenthood.

Author’s Note: Special thanks to Live Action Research Fellow, Carole Novielli.

Editor’s Note, 4/22/25: This article has been corrected and updated with additional information since original publication.