I just want to pick on this because you might be confusing conjury with white magic.
White magic is the more powerful version, banned from being practised by anyone except the Padjals (and a certain chosen adventurer), but conjury is common healing magic and is really widespread - most 'human' enemies will have a conjurer type amongst the group, and even non-healers may still cast Cure spells. There's also a levequest description that mentions giving basic conjury training to (I think) all the children in Gridania - it seems to be the magical equivalent of first aid.
It's cast by incantation of spells, although the power depends on the caster's skill, so it might be possible that anyone who knows the right words might be able to speak them and produce some degree of effect.
That's not to say that there isn't a place for alchemical substitutes for healing magic, but conjury isn't as limited as you might be thinking it is.
(Also, on having a female character but using a male character-model... There's at least one canon instance of that being done for an NPC, so you're not alone there.)