1. A new market after the old one collapsed
Several people who stopped hormones say the big sell-off began when doctors lost their main hormone customers—middle-aged women—after studies in the late-1990s showed menopause drugs raised cancer risk. One man recalls: “Hormone replacement therapy… was an extremely lucrative industry until… prescriptions vanished overnight. Pharmaceutical companies… found a new market… the side-effects of prolonged usage create lifelong patients and even more profit.” – IKnowWhatImAbout source [citation:1e752fd3-229e-47e9-a0e2-52ada3cd0393] In other words, the same products were re-branded for a much younger, life-long clientele.

2. “One surgery = a customer for life”
Because the body is now expected to run on the opposite sex hormone, people speak plainly about the business model: every prescription refill is guaranteed income. “Every brain-washed person that ends up having trans surgery… turns into a forever customer… you literally can’t live without hormones.” – LostSoul1911 source [citation:d3c22e30-d73a-470f-ba81-30c0d7baace2] Critics see this as the clearest profit motive: once the natural endocrine system is shut down, the person must buy replacement chemicals for decades.

3. A whole shopping mall built around one label
Blockers, sex hormones, cholesterol drugs for side-effects, voice coaches, “feminization” surgeons, special clothing lines, make-up lessons, and weekly therapy add up to what one woman calls “a money-making boondoggle for everyone involved… gender therapists, doctors, surgeons, facial-feminization surgeons, endocrinologists, clothing companies… They all love the idea of body destruction to fix mental illness because it keeps them in business.” – bo1555 source [citation:24f22217-5207-45cb-bf02-1b2a65dcf03d] Transition is portrayed less as a single prescription and more as an entire lifestyle economy.

4. Billionaire backers and political grease
Some storytellers point to ultra-wealthy donors who fund lobby groups, university chairs, and policy workshops. “The trans lobby is backed by powerful billionaires… an evil social-engineering experiment on children to make them lifelong patients to profit big pharma.” – xina08 source [citation:0808407f-f539-409f-8d07-10ae9d75f89a] In this view, philanthropic money sets the cultural stage while drug firms supply the recurring product.

5. Déjà vu: the ADHD playbook all over again
Several writers remember being given daily stimulants as kids for normal restlessness and see the same script today: advertise a “problem,” offer a daily pill, ignore long-term harm. “I was badly damaged by over-prescription… In the same way… kids were permanently damaged by medications for inappropriately diagnosed ADHD, we’re going to see so many people… completely fucked by the medical community.” – NeverCrumbling source [citation:7a6bcd7a-4aa9-4060-a52c-c9db15ce9181] The parallel warns that once a profitable pediatric label exists, marketing can outrun science.

If you feel uneasy about the medical route, these voices say: trust your instinct, follow the money, and know that living in comfortable gender non-conformity—without lifelong drugs—remains a safe, healthy, and increasingly visible option.