"Tranzisiyalar" magazine published the first issue

"Tranzisiyalar" magazine and the recording of trans life in Azerbaijan onto the page

MNTR's first issue, published on IDAHOBIT day, tries to fill the gap between documents, hormones and clinic prices. It is as much a harm-reduction project as it is a magazine.

Orkhan, who lives in Baku, first realised he was trans while looking at his own cosplay photographs. When he told the partner he was with at the time that he was uncomfortable with his body and his chest, the answer he got back was as short as a sentence and as long as a lifetime — this might be dysphoria. After a little research Orxan found a name for the feeling he had been unable to name, came out to his friends, dyed his hair blond and cut it short. His family threw him out of the house.

Hikmat learned the truth about himself at fourteen, in the seventh grade. He remembered playing with the boys as a child and refusing to wear skirts. But he did not believe "this was possible in this country." Everything changed in 2021, when he met Orkhan. He has been on testosterone since 2022 — four years now. "I have never had the thought that I wish I hadn't started," he says. "If it had been up to me, the sooner the better."

The conversation with this trans masculine couple, whose names have been changed, about how testosterone can no longer be bought over the counter, about a mastectomy surgeon found in Baku for 2,000 manats, about another operation in Turkey that, with all expenses, came to 5,500 manats, is the portrait of a parallel healthcare life in Azerbaijan. The interview appears in the final pages of Tranzisiyalar magazine. The issue was published yesterday on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

"In Azerbaijan, this subject is either silenced, turned into an object of mockery, or spoken about with fear. We, on the other hand, want to discuss transition through real lives, real risks and real needs." — Tranzisiyalar magazine, editorial

The answer that fills the gap

The title of the issue is in the plural for a reason. The editorial explains it openly. Some people transition only socially; others, both socially and medically. Some hide their medical transition from their social one for safety; others stop at a single stage. "Because there are so many different cases, transition is a deeply personal process, and there is no right or wrong way to go through it," the editors write.

The magazine grew out of Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance's "Rainbow Advocacy Academy" and is MNTR's first resource-oriented initiative aimed at trans people. The project announces three goals:

1. To close the information gap in the Azerbaijani language;

2. To channel existing resources to trans people;

3. To build community.

The next issue is expected on 17 June. The magazine is open to ideas and contributions from readers and invites them to write to [email protected].

The absence of a system, the space the community fills

One of the issue's central arguments is that there is a legal and institutional vacuum. "There is no standardised process for trans people in Azerbaijan. They are treated as if they do not exist." Citing ILGA-Europe's Azerbaijan report, it notes that trans people's access to hormone therapy is "very weak", and that a portion of them are therefore forced to take hormones without medical supervision. ECOM's legal-environment analysis records that legislation creates no direct anti-discrimination protections for trans people. ECRI has recommended that Azerbaijan provide legal gender recognition on the basis of self-determination. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) submission by Nafas and ECOM documents that the trans community is highly vulnerable to discrimination and violence from the police, educational institutions, the labour market and healthcare providers.

The magazine walks through the document procedure step by step. A change of gender on official documents is possible only after gender-affirming surgery, by applying to ASAN Xidmət with paperwork confirming that operation. Because there are no domestic surgeons performing these procedures, the path becomes a chain: travel abroad, obtain the paperwork, apostille it, come back. Name change, meanwhile, is only possible by switching to a gender-neutral name, and "after recent decisions has become significantly more difficult."

"Being trans is not only a question of identity; it is a daily struggle with access to healthcare, with documents, family, work, safety and the gaze of society."

When this document–doctor–family–work quadrilateral stays empty, the community fills the void. The issue is, openly, a pedagogy of that void. Every form, dose and side effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is laid out in detail: estradiol pills, patches, gels, solutions, injections and pellets; antiandrogens — spironolactone (Ridakton), bicalutamide, cyproterone acetate (Androcur, Diane), GnRH agonists, relugolix, buserelin. The brands that can be found in Azerbaijan are named: Klimara and Estramon for estradiol hemihydrate, Qleyra for estradiol valerate.

"People who do not have the opportunity to transition often look as if they are doing nothing. In reality, they hide their bodies every day, change their voices, choose their names, search for information online, calculate the risks, save money, wait — and above all, survive." The way forward, the magazine argues, is not prohibition but harm reduction. "This is not about praising risky behaviour. It is about understanding why people are pushed onto those risky paths, and trying to reduce the danger."

Clinics, prices and a semi-official infrastructure

Tranzisiyalar lists the names of five clinics in Baku and the prices of estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) blood tests at each: Referans Klinikası — 26 and 25 manats; Sağlam Ailə — 27 and 27 manats; Aysmed Klinikası — 16 and 18 manats; Memorial Hospital — both 20 manats; İnci Lab — 20 and 22 manats. "Other clinics offer the same tests at comparable prices."

Access to blood tests is the basic precondition for HRT to be administered safely. Keeping estradiol above 100 pg/mL and total testosterone below 50 ng/dL is the "most important component" of transfeminine HRT. With no trans-specific healthcare programme in Azerbaijan, this magazine takes that function on itself and answers, for its reader, the question "where can I take this test, and for how much?" Publishing such a table is, in itself, a kind of semi-official infrastructure work.

Not "I wish I hadn't started" but "the sooner the better"

The three-page T4T couple interview that closes the issue is limited strictly to medical detail; topics like rent, love and the name-change procedure are held over for later issues. The first issue is deliberately medical because the lack of semi-official information, open ignorance and fears turned into myth have reached the point of harming people's health. In the interview Orxan complains that testosterone has changed his voice and that he can no longer sing the way he used to. Hikmət says he has no complaints; he likes everything. The first night after a mastectomy was rough, with bandages and a corset, but recovery took about a week.

"I was lucky to find a doctor who agreed, who accepted helping me," Orkhn says. Hikmat's experience was the other way around: "He couldn't be found, and after that we had to go to Turkey."

"I was lucky to find a doctor. I just won't say his name. He asked for around 2,000 manats." — Orxan

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