Menopause puzzle
Trinny Woodall has become the latest celebrity to sing the hormone’s praises, but is testosterone the silver bullet we think it is? WH reports on the medication some women are describing as ‘life-changing’
Gail Robertson’s eyes welled up as the mocking laughter fed its way down the phone line. The mother-of-one, then 41, had asked her doctor for help as she struggled with the hormonal fallout of a surgical menopause, after a total hysterectomy he’d performed on her months earlier. ‘It eased my endometriosis pain and reduced my hereditary cancer risk, but I was left feeling alien in my own body,’ the now 47-year-old from Kent recalls. ‘It disrupted my sleep and triggered hot flushes and anxiety – which oestrogen-only hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches were soon able to ease – but my sex drive fell off a cliff.’ Four successive male NHS doctors dismissed her complaints about low libido – telling her to ‘persevere’, ‘get some lube’ and ‘exercise more’. Her tearful phone consultation culminated in her being chastised by her consultant gynaecologist for ‘telling me how to do my job’ when, after extensive online research, she requested what appeared to be a simple solution: testosterone.
The hormone hasn’t historically been considered a cornerstone of female health, given that women have around 10 to 20 times less testosterone than men do. But it’s increasingly being discussed in GP surgeries and on Instagram feeds in the same breath as menopause. Recent interest in the idea that testosterone could be the missing piece of the HRT jigsaw puzzle – alongside female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone – was sparked by a change in 2015 to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which recommended it as a treatment for low libido.
In the years since, the conversation around the hormone has ramped up. In 2020, Australia licensed the world’s first testosterone product for women. But it was the advent of the celebrity menopause movement that threw some star power behind it. Testosterone had glowing mentions in the 2021 and 2022 documentaries fronted by Davina McCall, who says it’s left her feeling better than she has done in years. Now, the TV personality and beauty entrepreneur Trinny Woodall has become the latest celebrity to endorse the hormone, telling The Times in September that she has a ‘shot in the arse of testosterone’ three times a year. ‘There is definitely increased awareness of the availability of testosterone,’ says Sophie Shotter. The aesthetic doctor has been prescribing testosterone for as long as she’s been prescribing HRT at her clinic, Illuminate Skin Clinic, in Kent. She believes the work within the menopause space being done by Davina and others is contributing to
