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[Mindfulmoomins]

Hi everyone,

I am doing ok although bloody hell it takes a lot of work in peri (exercise, mindful meditation, vitamins, healthy diet and counselling) including Estrogel 4 pumps and utrogestan plus my usual ad and another one. God writing all that has made me feel quite emotional. I never thought I would be so affected by perimenopause and it's taking some time to accept this stage in my life.

I am still experiencing some anxiety (in the mornings mostly). It causes some ibs -d symtpoms and I'm not sure what else I can do to help. It feels a bit like a lack of confidence or safety although I don't feel unconfident.

I appreciate that my body is probably under some stress in peri and that might be contributing to the morning feelings. I have an appointment at an NHS menopause clinic next week (Northwick Park) and I am just wondering whether testosterone is something that is sometimes added in cases like mine. I also have low libido. My testosterone was 1 when my bloods were done a month ago.

Any advice would be welcome.

Also, has this been the longest winter ever or what?! I am longing for more light and warmth as I'm sure that will help too.

Thanks xx

[Hurdity]

Hi Mindfulmoomins

Sorry to hear you are still feeling rough some of the time but pleased that you are doing OK generally!

Thing is about testosterone - firstly the tests are not particularly accurate for women and the gynae I saw said she didn't do them - because the test is designed for men whose T levels are much higher and in women our values are at the lower end of this much larger range. She said she always looked at symptoms and then a trial treatment.

Low libido is the most obvious symptom and later combined with fatigue and general muscle weakness or pain after exercise or similar symptoms. I'm not sure whether low T is a contributing factor in anxiety?

However mixed in with this is the effect of other things on libido - eg depression but also certains medications and hormones. Oral HRT can depress libido as can some anti-depressants - so if you are taking ADs this may not be helping.

Because there is so little research on T in women, I'm not sure whether there is any info on the effect of T replacement in women who are on decent doses of oestrogen and ADs too ie whether the addition of T (at the low dose recommended for women) is sufficient to counter the depressive effect of the ADs on libido without giving androgenic sdie effects? Maybe ask if anyone on here is taking T who is also taking ADs and see if you get any responses? You have to give T several weeks/months to fully see the effect though.

There is some information here - and although there is a lot of emphasis on men, women are mentioned too and the suggestion is that testosterone can help men with libido problems who are also on SSRIs. http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/sexual-health/a28157/antidepressants-lost-sex-drive/

As for the winter - I think it seems long because of this recent extreme spell - depending where you live of course but up until the persistent drop in temperatures a week or more ago - we hadn't really had any winter to speak of! Normally now we are experiencing spring days so let's hope these will soon appear

Hurdity x

[racjen]

MM, low testosterone is most definitely implicated in feelings of anxiety and lack of well-being; there's loads of stuff out there on the web about it and my experiences back it up. I tried again with testosterone a few weeks ago once my estrogen level was high enough to make it viable, and for 5 days or so I experienced an amazing increase in well-being, lessening of anxiety and libido before it all just disappeared - aaaaargh. I suspect something's going on with the extra factor (sex hormone binding globulin) that determines how much of the hormone is freely available, so yet more to investigate. But there's no doubt in my mind that testosterone is an important part of the picture with anxiety and depression.

[Mindfulmoomins]

Thank you so much Hurdity and a Racjen xxx

[Annie0710]

Anxiety and low mood are symptoms of low T

Adding T to my mix has helped enormously x