TESTOSTERONE CREAM GOT MY OOMPH BACK

YOU can see which women are taking hormones: it is in their confidence and energy. But perhaps the hormone that makes the biggest difference to confidence is not oestrogen but testosterone.

It’s the hormone women make in the biggest quantity — although in much smaller amounts than men — and it slowly declines as we age. By the time I was in my early 50s, a blood test showed my testosterone levels were at rock bottom, and I wanted my oomph back. Now I use testosterone every day (a pea-sized blob of the cream on my thigh) to improve my cognition, muscle, mood, bone density, energy and libido. I feel ‘on it’.

The NHS NICE guidelines state doctors should consider offering testosterone to women with low libido. I get the main part of my HRT — oestrogen and progesterone — on the NHS, but I have to pay for my testosterone cream privately (£160 for a year’s supply). But I would rather spend money on that than a weekly latte.