Not all transgender people need to medically transition. You don't even need to do any surgery or take hormones if you feel comfortable with yourself. It depends on your situation and your gender dysphoria. However, it seems most trans people still choose to transition medically.
First step of transitioning is getting hormones. How to get a doctor's prescription? It depends on your situation and where you live. Usually it will be a lot harder and more complicated in a small city or town than bigger cities. Bigger cities are more familiar with the process and easier to find a qualified physician who has the authority to prescribe you. You can go to physicians, endocrinologist or OBGYN. There are two categories of physicians. One is who practice under informed consent. This is the easiest one. You just need to make an appointment and explain your situation to them. Then maybe they will ask you to fill a form to say to make sure that you won't hold them responsible if anything bad happens and you understand the risks and the side effects and you understand the permanent changes that is going to happen. After that, you will do some blood work and be prescribed with hormones. The other is that who do not practice under informed consent. You have to go to therapist for several times maybe, until your therapist writes you a letter of recommendation. In this time, the physician will prescribe you hormones.
Once you are on hormones, you should understand that it is a really long process maybe years or so before the changes start to show up and take effect. Usually the doctors would suggest you to do surgeries after you take 2 years hormones. But there are many things you can do for yourself. For example, you can have your unnecessary hair removed. You can grow your hair out. You can learn how to do makeup. You can also shop for new sexy clothes. You can also change your name legally. During this period of time, you can decide when to start living full-time as your preferred gender, male or female. There's no exact time for everyone. As long as you feel comfortable, you can choose anytime you want.
After you are on hormones for maybe two years, your changes start to Plateau. You are able to get all surgeries you want, such as tops surgeries, face surgeries and maybe bottom surgeries, which is known as gender reassignment surgeries. These surgeries would take years to recover. When you are done with these, you can finish your transitioning.
These are the whole process of transitioning. If you are a transgender who is considering transitioning. I hope this article can help you in some way.