My country has more of a lengthy process, there is very little amount of therapists with previous transgender experience. To get even the first appointment you usually wait a couple of months at best, they first evaluate your overall mental health which can also get quite lengthy. I know of a person who hasn't started hormone treatment because there has been other underlaying mental health issues at play, so starting the treatment wasn't the ideal option as far as the therapist was concerned. They are very careful with hormones and they do not give it out just to anyone who asks, there is a third party psychological evaluation before any medical treatment that you must go through, tests that come with it to once again try and get an idea of your overall mental state aside from just the transgender issue, then there is endocrinologist that once again tells you about the changes on hormone therapy which at that point you hear a lot, both from the therapist, psychologist and endocrinologist. There is definitely not a lack of warnings and the medical step is treated very, very seriously. You also have to be at least a year on hormones, which is considered a "real life test" to even begin to seek for any surgical procedures. Surgical procedures are 18+ in most places but some surgeons I know of refuse to operate on anyone below the legal age. As for hormones, if you are below the legal age of 18 years old, you need a signed agreement from both of your parents to start hormone therapy.

I would say the transition process in my country is definitely not as easy as I have noticed, for example, American's to be. It always baffled me how fast they have it.

I don't see the harm in it, honestly. It's even better when you live your life that way before you start any rapid changes because then you have time to properly evaluate yourself, see if this is really something that works for you, if it really helps as you thought. You get to test the waters without actually, possibly, fucking up your life by permanent changes. I can't really imagine how that's harmful. It's only "harmful" to those who want everything done as fast as possible and they don't even address if there might be other issues at play, and I find that to be more harmful than any "real life test."

I agree, it's a nonsensical argument. Trans women are just as likely to be killed pre-hormones as after hormones. Why? It's hard and near impossible to reverse the male puberty which majority has gone through. For example, if a trans man starts hormone treatment, his vocal cords thicken which results in masculine voice after a while however it is much, much harder to get the reverse result because testosterone is very "aggressive" hormone and some of its changes are very difficult to tackle. A trans woman, if not genetically lucky, will always be taller than average woman, have deeper voice unless she starts voice training and even that is not always going to bring desired results, she will always have much broader statue and overall give more masculine impression even after starting hormones. Why? Because unfortunately for them, estrogen changes much, much less than testosterone does, it's less aggressive. It may soften your features a tad bit but not nearly enough. If she hasn't passed before hormones, chances are she will struggle after starting too unless she undergoes some surgeries, especially the first year, because changes are very slow, specially if she is only on estrogen and hasn't gone through any surgery.

Even testosterone does not change anything the first shot, it takes months and even then it heavily depends on genetics. The feeling of happiness and alleviated dysphoria is just a placebo effect. If she has waited long time or was super excited to start, it's understandable that she is in a very blissful state but realistically she is exactly where she has been before internally wise, only with a bit of a higher dosage of estrogen that hasn't even begin to work yet.

If you are afraid or too deep into questioning to the point it's really bothering you it's fine to stop T for now, to ground yourself mentally, to give yourself some time to think and see if that works better, if you end up actually preferring to just stop the HRT forever, or you may find out you want to continue it, so you will! HRT won't run away, you will have the option there, always. Remember that your experience is your own, people may have similar ones, with different outcomes but they are still individual. Take your time to explore your feelings without pressure.

My biggest problem with it, is that there is such a lack of psychological evaluation for other issues, such as trauma response or other things that may be the trigger. I don't see why that is seen as "problematic," I have heard so many people speak out that their transition was a result of some unchecked trauma or other mental health issue altogether and they just got handed hormones only to later find out that it's not what they needed at all. I don't think every trans person will de-transition at all but the lack of thought for those who may fall into the holeI and end up permanently fucking up their life, or make their life harder is just.. disappointing. I think it's good that my country has it more lengthy and detailed, because even if some may still fall through the cracks and de-transition, it's still much, much less than in countries where you get handed the hormones basically as soon as you sign a paper.