The Daily Mail Health section ran an excellent article on testosterone and the menopause in December.

In the article Can testosterone help beat the menopause? medical journalist Jane Feinmann took an in-depth look at the important role that testosterone can play in a woman’s health during the menopause.

Can Testosterone Help With Menopause?

The benefits of including testosterone in HRT are quite dramatic. Apart from improving the sex life of one of the interviewees, it made a dramatic difference to her bone density levels restoring them back to normal.

Charles Kingsland, a consultant gynaecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is quoted as saying:

‘Everything HRT is claimed to do, from ending hot flushes to boosting bone density, appears to be done better when a post-menopausal woman is also getting extra testosterone.’

The article also refers to recent studies which found that post-menopausal women who were given a testosterone gel had boosted cognitive function and a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The Caution Surrounding Testosterone Use by Women

However, the article does point out that in spite of all the positive hype around testosterone use in menopausal women, there is still not much data available on the long-term effects.

Doctors in the UK are reluctant to prescribe it for that reason as well as the fact that there is no licenced testosterone product for women on the market.

It’s great that the Daily Mail Health section is publishing such important information for menopausal women. Testosterone use by women still has a huge social stigma and ignorance surrounding it, both amongst women and GPs, and the more we know and talk about this subject, the better.

Also, I hope that more widespread knowledge of and requests for testosterone by women lead to greater pressure by medical professionals on the pharmaceutical industry to reinstate a licenced testosterone product for women.

I was thrilled to be one of the interviewees in the article and spoke about the benefits and side-effects of my testosterone treatment.

Jane Feinmann’s article is a fantastic survey of the issues surrounding testosterone treatment for menopausal women in the UK and I urge you to read it in full on the Daily Mail website.

Link:

Can testosterone help beat the menopause? Jane Fonda says it transformed her libido and researchers claim the benefits are almost limitless – by Jane Feinmann. Published by the Daily Mail Online 9 December 2013.