Manning’s gender transition sets up legal showdown for life behind bars

[Yo_Mama]

16. What I'm confused about

is that I have the idea, from reading I did a long time ago, that transgender individuals transitioning medically (not all transgenders do) at treatment clinics go through a process in which first they receive a lot of counseling, and then they are guided through the process of living as a person of the other biological sex, and then the treatments begin. I got this idea from reading stories that medically transitioned persons had written.

If that is so, what of this is available to Manning in prison?

I can see if a transgender person had already navigated the first part of the process before going to prison that issues would be much simpler, but it seems to me that just being in prison poses several obstacles to starting the process. Prison is an abnormal environment. People here seem to be discussing this as if the average transgender person just wakes up one day, thinks "Hey, I'm a _____ (person of other gender), pops down for a doctor visit and is given hormones to start the process, and that doesn't seem to be the way it really works.