Let’s say I, a middle aged cis man went to my doctor, wanting gender affirming care, and my doctor wanted to provide - what, if anything, would the treatment/care consist of? Just making sure my testosterone level was up to Hegseth-approved standards?


That’s not gender affirming care. That’s just men practicing their masculinity.
It may be founded in insecurities, but if severe enough those would be treated by a psychologist if an actual treatment were to take place.
Also not gender affirming, but a practice to live up to a perceived beauty standard.
Gender affirming care is for people suffering from gender dysphoria, if you don’t suffer from that, you literally have no need for gender affirming care.
Is “I hate my shoulders, I wish they were broader so that I could look more manly” and “I hate my boobs, I look like a plank, not a real woman” not dysphoric enough for you?
That’s dysmorphia, not dysphoria
That’s not dysphoric but an issue with the standards for being what you feel you are.
Living up to ideals is not the same as being a prisoner in a body of a different gender than what you identify as.
Having a penis and hating it to a point where you want it removed, is not the same as having a penis that you think is to small.
Those are VERY different issues.
The issues may be valid, they are just not the same as gender dysphoria.
What’s the difference between a cis woman with small boobs getting a boob job, and a trans woman with small boobs getting a boob job?
And between a cis man with big boobs getting them removed, and a trans man with big boobs getting them removed?
I agree your examples are very different issues. Comparing a micro penis to bottom surgery is kind of unfair. Let’s compare total penis reconstruction after injury (phalloplasty for cis men) to penis construction (phalloplasty for trans men) instead. It’s the same procedure and it serves the same purpose, to create a penis for a patient that doesn’t have one. Is a cis man that lost his penis in war body dysmorphic?
The difference is that one has gender dysphoria, the other does not. So although the operation is the same, it is not gender affirming care, because gender affirming care is by definition for people with gender dysphoria.
how is it different if you have to take medication/surgery to do so?
It’s not the surgery that makes it different, people also have penis enlargement surgery, it’s still not at all similar to having gender dysphoria.
Gender affirming treatment is a specific term for people who have gender dysphoria, so without that you can’t have gender affirming care. It’s like saying a sprained leg and a broken leg is the same, when the underlying problems are very very different.
roiding up, PED is most certainly gender affirming care, that is also railed on transgendered people. and you see how all those obsessed with it, try justify its usage by saying it "aint bad, or i know its a secret, or people use it to have a better time getting stronger,etc)