Anyone on testosterone?

[DustyLee123]

I’ve been on HRT (gel and mirena) for a year now and still have zero libido. Just wondered about other’s experiences of it?

I'm on it. I don't really notice much of a difference to my libido. I've been on it about a year. I think I'll still persevere. Out of interest, where on your body do you apply it? I wondered if applying it to specific areas may help absorption.

Following.

I've spoken to GP about it, but slightly concerned about the side effects.

I was, it took about 6 months to but it had a great effect on libido. I also had to have a scan to check endometrial layer [? As I had a lot of scans]

anyway I had to come off hrt and I miss the testosterone.

Yes, for less than six months. I like it. I feel a bit less anxious and am sleeping slightly better so for that reason alone I hope never to be parted from it. I had a mild uptick in libido starting from zero when I first started but that was temporary for me not game changing.

I don’t put the gel on every other day as directed, because that felt like too much, it was exacerbating dryness and atrophy. I was needing to add Vagirux morning and evening daily, which felt like the balance of hornones must be off. Now back to daily Vagirux.

I will try to get the results of a blood test for testosterone from the GP and to talk to them about what might be an appropriate dose of T for me. My inner thigh hair has gone from pretty much invisible to quite visible but it’s a small price to pay.

I do slightly worry about how trial and error the whole process is with tinkering around with the dosages to find the right effects that you need. But have found that to be true for HRT as a whole. I don’t know if there’s any knowledge on here about how flexible testosterone is to being used ‘as and when’ rather than strictly on the alternate days suggested. it’s a pump dosage of Testogel so it’s quite tricky to pump a smaller dosage out reliably. The awful quality of life from sore dry vulva and vagina and UTIs are definitely to be avoided, so it feels like a constant calibration work in progress for me.

I went to see a menopause specialist because my GP would not change the dose of hrt according to my symptoms. The oestrogen and progesterone needs to be at the right dose and balanced before taking testosterone otherwise your body will convert most of it to oestrogen and you won't get any benefit from testosterone. I now have doubled my oestrogen and testosterone makes me feel normal again.
It's amazing, I feel young again.
The menopause specialist was private but worth the money. there needs to be better access to hrt in the nhs.

The conversion to oestrogen really confuses me. When I was taking the recommended dosage of alternate days I felt like my oestrogen must be going down because I was taking T, hence the dryness and UTI symptoms. Maybe I need to start my own thread but that seems odd. I’m already on high oestrogen patches. Mirena is newly replaced earlier this year.

I managed to get testosterone on the NHS but I had to wait almost a year to see a consultant who is a menopause specialist. She said that testosterone isn't a magic bullet and it only helps roughly 50% of women.

With odds like that I thought I'd be daft not to try it. It's been absolutely wonderful. I've never felt so well. Completely brought back my va va voom - not just libido but lust for life altogether.

I told my sister about it and she went to a private menopause specialist and got prescribed it the same day. It was only around £150 for the consultation and prescription and going forward she'll get the testosterone from the NHS, so private is well worth considering if you don't wait to wait another year to see if it works for you, especially if your other HRT feels optimal to you.

Some doctors seem to be a bit cavalier with the dose - I think most women only need a pea-sized amount every three days - so be sure to ask lots of questions if they try to recommend any more than this. Too much can cause weight gain, hair loss and all sorts of bad side effects.

It was someone on Mumsnet who recommended testosterone to me and I'm eternally grateful to her.

Best of luck OP.

@FishFlaked are you taking oestrogen pessaries? Might be worth asking your doctor about them because they really hit the spot, as it were.

I had testosterone added to my HRT about 8 weeks ago. I went private to get it but my GP has agreed to take over prescribing. I have found that my interest in sex came back after about 3 weeks and my ability to orgasm came back a couple of weeks later. With the vagifem 2x week the atrophy is much improved and I think I’ve got my oestrogen gel (3 pumps) and utrogestan (100mg daily, continuously, vaginally) right for me after a year of changing products & progesterone intolerance.

I haven’t had any side effects from the T other than my hair and nails are growing at twice the speed.

I’m one of the lucky ones.

Receptive GP who sorted my oestrogen first then prescribed on the NHS

Almost immediate very apparent return of libido.

No negative side effects.

thanks heathspeedwell yes I do take the pressures and they are great but I was having to do it twice a day on the recommended T dose of every other day.

I’ll try taking the T every three days and see what happens then. I’m not taking it regularly enough to really be able to
monitor at the moment. Partly thanks to the awful memory!

It had a great effect on my libido. Took awhile before it kicked in. It didn’t have any impact on my fatigue unfortunately. I’m now mid 50s and separating from my husband so wondering whether to stop using if libido is the only benefit.

Just wanted to add that someone on another thread has said she gets testosterone from Superdrug, so that's worth considering. She said that you have to be on HRT already, and they test your testosterone level first.

I'm on it. Libido improved drastically but not much change to energy levels as I'd hoped. Having lots more sex though!