The absence of HRT in comics
(Sorry if this is incoherent, it's 2 am and I wanted to get this out of my head)
A while ago, I decided to read through as many comics featuring transgender characters, primarily trans women, since I am one, and that is what interested me the most. I read through hundreds of issues from a variety of books (Avengers Academy, Angela, The Wicked and the Divine, Nice House by the Lake/Sea, Pollack's Doom Patrol, Immortal Hulk, Lumberjanes, various Pride anthologies, etc.), and one thing that stood out to me was that across all of these examples of transgender representation in comics, HRT was almost never mentioned, let alone actually seen.
For the most part, HRT was brought up in contexts separate from any particular transgender character. HRT wasn't something that a character used or relied on, it wasn't a part of their routine, of their life, it was a MacGuffin needed by other people (For an example, in case I'm doing an awful job of explaining what I mean, see "No Trespassing: Beware of Dog from Marvel's 2023 Pride anthology). The only transgender comic characters who I have read that discuss themselves taking HRT were Charlene McGowan, from Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk, and Brooke, from the fairly obscure Webtoon, Riverine (Notably, we actually get to see her take her HRT).
So, why is HRT, something I think we could all agree is a fairly important part of many transgender people's lives, so rarely represented in comics? No answer can be totally correct, but I have come up with many theories. Is it often seen as an unimportant detail, something that should just be assumed or glossed over when a trans character appears? Are many of the cis authors who often write transgender characters simply uneducated on the medical side of transition, and end up avoiding the topic either purposefully or accidentally because of that? Is it because so many notable trans characters in comics go through supernatural transitions (via shapeshifting or other means)? Should authors even ever bother to go out of the way to include it in their stories, is it worth it? And, are there more comics out there that do depict HRT alongside transgender characters that I have simply missed out on? Am I seeing a trend where there isn't one?