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Health Canada fails to act as drug shortages impact trans men

An ongoing drug shortage is causing a hassle for trans men and other users of injectable testosterone.

Mary Potter is a registered nurse with the Sherbourne Health Centre's LGBT Primary Care Program. She says the most important thing for users to know is that they have other options for medication.

"The issue is when they don't come to see us or... they're told by the pharmacy that they just don't have it and people are waiting without the medication," she says.

Waiting, rather than finding an alternative drug, can result in a lapse of the medication's effects. "They should be coming in to see their physicians or nurse practitioners because they can be switched to a different compound."

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in her own words

Occupy Toronto a welcome shelter for those with mental health issues

Occupy Toronto, day 31. Photo: John Bonnar

As an eviction notice looms over Occupy Toronto, some fear that the loss of the tent city could be devastating for participants with mental health issues who have found themselves in a supportive atmosphere they don't often find in the outside community.

Gail Trottman is a social worker who leads the Health and Wellness team -- a mental health peer support system, staffed by Occupy volunteers -- at Occupy Toronto. She is worried that the anxiety around eviction could trigger a crisis for people who have mental health issues in the park. "With the eviction notice coming up earlier this week, we started to notice people were more tense," she says.

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