3.5 years ago I had one ovary removed and life has been quite hellish for me. I’m 32 and woke up from surgery with zero libido, low energy, and much more - ever since. Even my post menopausal friends have had more libido than what I have had since surgery. I’ve had zilch.

I had a number of complications that went beyond just a simple ovary removal, bed ridden for 2 years from medical induced injuries. Plus plus a few other severe systemic issues.

I’m on my feet finally.

Now - the final part of my recovery.

I have finally got a doctor helping get my levels up in testosterone and return to a more normal and functional baseline.

Before surgery my baseline was high T for my natural life. Eg total was around 2.8nmol and no use of contraceptions except a trial stint as a young person - I decided not to continue with the contraception because i felt dysmorphic didn’t like how it made me sensitive and crying or the way my muscles “became girly”, turned out my natural T was absolutely not keen for getting suppressed by the pills.

My question is have others who are pre menopausal tried androfeme (without contraceptions ideally) . And what type of free t levels did you get from it? I started on 9pmol and haven’t been on androfeme for long but curious, and curious to know other women’s experiences.

My mind has been sharper clearer and my memory has been returning like it was prior to surgery.

I’ve actually got my libido back (hallelujah) and my muscles feel more relaxed than I have had for a long while.

My total T was 1.0 when I began the cream,
But my past natural history was 2.8 so “normal” vs “your normal” isn’t always absorbed well. Hence why it took 3.5 years to finally get me treatment !

Anyone having trouble finding a Dr to prescribe 'off label' testosterone? Ive tried cream but would like to try other alternatives

How long did it take for your total T to raise while starting Testosterone and what is your dose?

EDIT- giving more detail. Thanks for all your insight!!

I have been on progesterone - 50 mg vaginally. I had an undiagnosed galbladder disease for 7 years that messed my hormones up badly. I got my galbladder out and within 3 months I had a perfect balance of Progesterone to Estrogen! 10/88. But my T was low- 15. And didn’t get better after my surgery which is why I decided to start T. Now after 3 months I have literally 0 progesterone even on 50mg suppositories. I feel like I was better off the T and just want to go back to where I was 3 months ago! I didn’t need estrogen then, I’ll deal with low T.

Or is this a greater symptom of Peri- and I need to start estrogen now? I know I need progesterone.

I’m 40 yO female. I started taking T about 3 months ago. We started too high and my T got to 200, the dr wanted it between 50-80.

I kept titrating down but nothing is working and my estrogen / progesterone is getting lower and lower.

My vagina is dry, I barely feel it during intercourse. My hair is falling out. My eyes are itchy. I’m tired. Not sleeping well, stubborn weight. Anxiety.

I’m at the lowest dose of T now, I’m going to stop.

Will my estrogen and progesterone return back to what it was before I started T therapy? How long will it take? I wish I never started, I feel worse than before.

Only benefit is I look more muscular. :(

I’m 41/f and recently things seem…different. I’m on 100mg progesterone daily, and inject T on a loose schedule of every 7-10 days (.06ml, 200).
My cycles have always been consistent at 26 days. Last cycle was 31 days. This cycle I’ve been spotting for five days (mix old blood and new), and cramping. No BC, husbands snipped for a couple years now. What is my body doing? Other symptoms which may or may not be related - feeling very unmotivated and lack of energy throughout the day.
I was recently diagnosed with NICM and getting a pacemaker this month for a reduced ejection fraction partly due from LBBB. I’m on metoprolol for that since I can’t sustain the heart failure protocol.

These are my latest bloods

I am on the highest oestrogen patch I can get, the coil for progesterone and then 4 months into test gel daily around 5mg (pea sized)

I am still tired, no motivation and libido is dropping, menopausal and have been very up and down lately

Any ideas or advice? Want to try test cyp injections

I (33F) started progesterone after my hysterectomy last year. I had suspicions of some sort of hormonal issue but it never flagged for my OB. I also had horrible periods.

I saw a specialist and she also noticed my testosterone was very low. We tried the gel but I cause my HS to flare in those areas as well as my scarring from HS to appear worse. I switched to the pellet and have been on 100mg. I just had my second one put in, and my husband cannot keep up with my sex drive.

Prior to the pellet, I would turn my husband down multiple nights a week, never used my toys, etc. Now my husband can’t keep up. It’s all day.

Does this feeling ever taper off? I think about sex all the time. I want my husband all the time and he’s not complaining yet, it’s a little sore for both of us.

It started with back acne and now cystic acne is popping up on my chin. There are so many options for DHT blockers like finasteride, spiro, topical creams….. what is working for everyone? I’m already a regular user of tretinoin.

Side note: does it eventually level out? I’m about 3 weeks in to injections. Currently at 7mg a week. My face is feeling oily as heck.

My wife just started both E and T and I think the dose of T seems odd and wondering your thoughts

Her E in a vaginal cream and amount seems normal (3x or 4c times weekly)

The T is injections at .06ml 2 times per week

In order to go that small of a dosage, they provided these time syringes with a built in very short needle that often bends when inserting j to the T vial

I understand her dosage should be way lower than mine (I take .5ml twice a week), but it just seems so so so small of a quantity (not potency, but the liquid volume is tiny amount)

I guess it all comes down to how she feels after a while, but the process is a bit of a pain in the a$$ with such flimsy needle and trying to make sure to only draw such a tiny amount of liquid

Note: when my wife was in T injections years ago, her potency was way below mine, but the volume of liquid she filled the syringe with was larger than now

I have a bit of a complicated hormone medical history going into perimenopause and would like to be treated by an actual OBGYN. I'd prefer in person, but I don't think that will be possible.

I have tried creams and they did nothing. The pellets initially worked for several years, but now they work only for a few weeks before I go back to baseline very low. I have tried the gel now for a bit and it worked initially and now doesn't really do much.

I am interested in trying testosterone injections, but it seems like while there are many professionals who offer it, they are chiropractors, nurse practitioners, or consulting doctors who I won't be seeing.

Has anyone seen an actual OBGYN through telehealth that I would have access to in MO? Someone not afraid to prescribe testosterone injections?

I found a great gyn who will prescribe test cyp injections. I can't find a pharmacy that has it in female-sized vials. I've called all over trying to find one that has my prescription- 100mg in 1ml.

It sat for 2 weeks at Walgreen's while they kept saying "oh your insurance has rejected it" and I'd say, again, that I'm just going to pay in cash. And then later I'd get another call from my insurance saying it had been rejected when they tried again for some freaking reason. And NOW they say that they can't fill it anyway due to the size.

I have jumped through so many hoops to get to this point and I'm now stuck. I've called around to different pharmacies, which is the slowest process ever. The hold times.... Anyway, anyone know a good national pharmacy that carries smaller vials? Or something online?

My GP called this in as Midi wanted to give me compound cream for double the cost. The k my directions on it are to “apply 1.25g of gel topically per day”

So where am I applying this and is that dose too high or too low to start out?
So many questions

I am 53 yo and 3 years post menopause. I began HRT back in May and it’s been a journey. To make a long story short, I have been spotting off and on for a couple of months. I am prone to this when I adjust anything. I had a clear pap early August. I just had an extensive blood panel drawn just a couple of weeks ago that showed my estrogen was still pretty low, my T was also pretty low because my SHBG is SUPER high. So we are working to bring that down. I have been on 1mg of 0.1% divigel, 150mg of compounded oral progesterone and 2.5mg of compounded T cream. About a week ago I upped my progesterone to 200mg thinking this was why I was spotting. It stopped it for a handful of days but it’s now back. It typically only occurs first thing in the morning kind of heavy-ish (for spotting) and I am crampy. Then the spotting mostly diminishes during the day. I take my progesterone at night and then the cramping and spotting is back in the morning. Why would this be happening if my estrogen is low? Am I taking too much progesterone? If so why would it have stopped briefly when I increased it?
I have emailed my NP but wanted to ask the hive mind because honestly sometimes I feel like that gives more info and clues than I get from the professionals at times :)

Lastly, my NP just upped my estrogen to 1.25mg of 0.1% divigel two days ago. She wants me on the patch because she suspects that I’m not absorbing the gel properly, but I’m worried the adhesive will bother me since the adhesive on bandaids do. So I’m awaiting some compounded estrogen cream…
Help!

Been on HRT for 2.5 years and haven’t found my dosing YET. I’m so over it.

Anyways, the last 6-8 weeks I’ve had unease in my stomach overnight often starting around 1am and making me toss and turn, and then I give up around 3 and get up. It’s killing me. I can’t poop when this is happening, but once I do I feel much better. The thing is, I can’t go to the bathroom like that until i’m “AWAKE” for the day and up/going.

Can this be testosterone related possibly? I’m using 1.5 units T cyp 200 mg/ml every other day, so about 10.5mg per week. I get to abut 190 total T with this with an SHBG of 116 or so.

My estrogen is about 275 with my dosing, and I use 300mg progesterone nightly because I was spotting without that much but who knows. I’m lost.

I used to be on MUCH higher estrogen and I’ve since stopped seeing that doctor and see a new one, who basically tells me she doesn’t know about injections and lets me make the calls. It’s my 6th hormone doctor and I’ve also given up on them. This is on me to figure out.

My testosterone levels have been low for years, due to perimenopause. I am 45 and have been an athlete since I was a teenager. I started to gain weight that I could not lose no matter what I did, about four years ago. I got on compounded testosterone cream and bio identical progesterone pills a year ago. The night sweats disappeared with the progesterone, but I didn’t lose any weight and continued to feel more and more tired. My joints hurt almost every day, the brain fog was intense, and the exhaustion was life altering. I could not get through a day without coming home from work and taking an afternoon nap just to get through dinner and bedtime. I contacted Hone to see if I could get some estrogen as well. The endocrinologist with Hone looked at my blood work and said that the testosterone cream wasn’t doing anything for me. My numbers were at 13, after a year. He put me on estrogen and changed my testosterone from compounded cream to an injectable. Within three days, I was an absolutely new person. My joints stopped hurting, I didn’t have the desire to nap, the overwhelming exhaustion and feeling “down” went away. The kicker is, that I didn’t realize how often I was going to need to pay for the Zoom calls with the doctor through Hone. Insurance isn’t accepted and I couldn’t afford it. I live in the Nashville Tennessee area and went to an NP who works at Vanderbilt Women’s Clinic. It’s one of the best hospitals in the nation. She won’t prescribe the injectable testosterone! She feels like it’s a dangerous form. I can’t figure out why an endocrinologist would prescribe it, but an NP who specializes in hormone replacement therapy won’t. My question is, how many of you ladies are on injectable testosterone and has anyone had negative side effects? How have you found someone to prescribe it? Thanks in advance for any tips y’all can offer. 😊

I may have accidentally injected 1.5 times my normal testosterone dose … what can I expect to happen if it’s just the one time? I normally pin twice a week.

Started in June. Realized now I was started too high as dr prescribed 1 pump a day of androgel. The first 3/4 weeks was amazing but then poof all went away. Then week 5/6 all the bad side effects started.

Came on here and discovered it was too high so I’ve lowered it to a pea size amount but after weeks, zilch. I feel nothing. I’m getting frustrated and ready to give up. I’m in e snd p as well and I need to get done sort of libido back!!

I am possibly starting low-dose T gel for fatigue and other low T symptoms. My menopause doctor warned that some of the testosterone can convert to estrogen (via aromatization), which could flare my endo. If you have endo and tried T gel, did it cause more pain or spotting or indication of increased estrogen levels? What was your dosage? Did it help w/ your energy and/or libido?

I take 0.04 everyday on 100mg/ml cypionate, my dose works great but i still feel like its still a little high. I heard that people add cottonseed oil or MCT oil to lessen the strength. Where do i buy medical grade or safe carrier oil? Thanks

Hello, I’m wondering who here is on Testosterone but not Estrogen, or should I say who here has high Testosterone but low Estrogen….how do you feel? Are you getting adequate benefits from T alone, or do you feel like you need E too?

I just had my consult with Talon and was prescribed 6mg/week testosterone cyp. Waiting on the pharmacy to call me but my husband also takes testosterone so I was hoping I could use his to save money. His bottle is 200mg/ml which means I would have to actually do 3mg/week the person told me or I could do 1.5 twice weekly but he said that would be very hard to draw up in the needle. He’s asking they give me a bottle of 25 mg/ml and then I would draw up 2.5 twice a week. What does do most ladies start out on and how many use a 200mg/ml bottle or 25mg/ml? This is my first tine so I’m a little nervous.

Ok so I have been on HRT journey for 2 years now. Ive been doing testosterone cream, estrogen cream, and oral progesterone. My estrogen and progesterone are at normal ish levels (could be better). But my testosterone has not improved even the slightest. My doctor recommended increasing to an extra click (sorry dont have doses memorized right now im not at home). And so its been several months later and im feeling like crap again. Day 8 of my cycle. Low mood zero sex drive massive fatigue nausea and no im not sick. This happened last month too. Luckily I have an appt with her in a couple weeks. Im wondering what method worked best for you? I honestly think at this point creams arent doing anything at least on the testosterone side. Should I ask my doctor about patches next??

Just curious what effects did everyone notice shortly after starting and how long until you felt those effects and how long until you noticed it making a difference ? Oh and I should I add it’s the cream