I got the US version of this machine for Christmas 1982. The manual that came with it had all of the Z80 opcodes listed and briefly explained. I learned a lot from that little machine.
There's some particulars in your story that sound awfully familiar- I think I might have been involved with the original installation. Was this company in New Jersey by any chance?
Estradiol is about $7 for 30 1mg pills, so more like $233 per gram. Source: goodrx.com / I'm a trans woman.
(edit) - and just to reflect on what happened to this child, in addition to the physical changes & social problems, this "treatment" would have surely induced gender dysphoria, which any trans person can tell you is awful as hell.
JKR is in fact doing that, everyday. Basically, if trans people aren't free to even use the bathroom in public that matches their gender identities, then we can't live in public society.
The problem with JKR in particular, is that she is "speaking out" against a group of people who are extremely oppressed, and using outdated / debunked info to do so.
Because of who she is, and her massive audience, this does real damage.
A person's right to even exist in society shouldn't be up for debate.
With that said, a lot of the problem stems from the fact that a popular author from the "outside" culture is going to have a lot more influence on what others in the outside culture believe/understand about the "inside" culture.
As an example from my community, just about every movie written about transgender people by a cisgender person spends a lot of time showing the subject putting on makeup or wearing heels, implying that the essence of what it means to be a trans woman is wearing makeup or high heeled shoes... But it isn't the case.
That would almost be ok, but the popular movie is going to get a lot more airtime than an indie movie made by a trans person which shows what our real lives are like. In fact, that movie may not get made at all.
So it's worse having the popular movie out there, making money off of our lives, but misrepresenting them at the same time. (And this is all assuming that no harm was intended... it's still harmful, and it happens all the time.)