Yes, anyone who is 18+ and permanently resides in a state that we service is eligible for gender-affirming hormone therapy through our practice.

Our providers look to the UCSF transgender care and treatment guidelines, which can be found here.

During your first appointment, your provider will establish your medical history and ask whether you have had labs done.

If you don't have labwork done yet, your provider will place a lab order in to a location near you. Your results will be uploaded to the app automatically.

Some providers may request that you obtain a letter from a therapist indicating that you have spoken with them about gender-affirming care. You can upload this letter via the app. Note that this letter request is at the provider's discretion.

You can use our in-app chat to message your care team and provider as you complete the labwork. Once you have the needed items indicated by your provider and a completed first appointment with Circle Medical, you are ready to begin hormone therapy.

Your prescription will be sent to a pharmacy near you (or you can ask your provider if mail-order prescriptions are available in your state).

You'll then keep messaging your provider and care team as you start hormone therapy. Your provider may establish a follow-up appointment to adjust dosage or discuss how things are going.

Circle Medical practices care in alignment with the UCSF Transcare guidelines and WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Standards of Care. A therapist letter is not always a requirement in order for patients to have access to gender affirming care.

Often, we will not require a letter from a therapist or mental health professional prior to beginning gender affirming care. However, there are select times in which we may ask for a letter from a therapist, or mental health professional. For example, we may ask for a letter if a patient is unsure of their gender affirming goals and/or is new to exploring gender affirming therapy and is unsure whether starting gender affirming care is right for them. 

Our goal is to improve access to high quality and delightful primary care. Gender affirming care is within the scope of primary care and we are focused on creating a safe environment for people to receive care.

To see a list of states, please start booking an appointment. You will be able to select from a list of all of the states where we are currently practicing.

You must be currently residing in the state of treatment as well as have your primary pharmacy be in that same state in order to be a patient at our practice.

The decision to start your transition is a deeply personal one. We recommend booking a video appointment to speak with one of our experienced clinicians to get your questions answered. All of our clinicians are primary care practitioners, which means that they are experienced in providing care beyond gender-affirming hormone therapy.

Your clinician will be able to discuss your treatment options with you and answer any questions you may have, about gender-affirming care or about any other health topic you may want to discuss in a safe environment.

Your provider will be able to place a lab order to a lab near you to get bloodwork and hormone monitoring completed. Your results will be uploaded automatically to the app, where you can view and download them at any time.

Our providers are primary care providers (MD's, DO's, NP's, and PA's) who have experience in providing gender-affirming care and behavioral health care. They are allies and proud members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We encourage you to read more about each provider on their profiles above!

You do not need to book your appointment with a doctor. You can book your appointment with any provider that we have available. Our providers all work closely together to make sure that we are providing the same excellent standard of care to all patients regardless of which provider you book your appointment with. The type of provider you book with will not limit the type of treatment or medications that you are able to be prescribed.

The first intake appointment is 30 minutes. Follow-up appointments are 20 minutes each.

We contract with most PPO insurance plans. If you are a California Bay Area resident, we also work with a small number of HMO plans.

To verify if we work with your insurance, simply start booking an appointment online. You will be prompted to enter your insurance details and will receive eligibility results instantly as well as an estimate of your appointment cost prior to confirming your appointment.

Some PPO plans that we currently work with are:
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Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net, Humana, and United Healthcare.

Plans that we cannot work with are:

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide care for patients who have Medi-Cal or Medicaid insurance. This is because we are not licensed Medi-Cal or Medicaid providers, so we are not able to provide care, even if these patients choose to pay cash instead of use their insurance. If you have Medi-Cal or Medicaid, please do not book an appointment with us, as we will be unable to provide care even if you do not enter your insurance information. We apologize about this.

After booking your first appointment, download the app and make sure that you are able to sign in. Confirm your appointment start time in the app (all times are in your phone's local time). No other actions are needed.

You will receive an in-app chat message 1-2 minutes before your appointment start time with the link to join your video appointment.

After you are prescribed medications, we will coordinate sending these prescriptions to your preferred pharmacy. We may have a mail-order prescription delivery service available; please ask your provider about this.

We will contact you via the in-app chat regarding ongoing refills and follow-up appointments. Your specific follow-up appointment cadence will be determined by your provider.

If you have questions at any time, please feel free to chat with your provider and care team via our secure app.