I also just posted this in an earlier thread but also relevant here. As far as the testosterone: I'm in the US so things are little different, but it's still quite frustrating that a hormone preparation that has not been shown to cause any actual harm in prescribed amounts is readily available to men but seriously guarded from women for no other reason than cowardice by drug companies. I requested it from my gyno as I needed help with disappeared libido and overall, general low energy and general feeling bad issues, no hot flashes. (52 and not quite in total meno but almost).
I had been taking bc pills in peri and they kill the libido for me, and now taking duavee (low-ish dose oral estrogen and a SERM). I have always had trouble with bc pills even when young, for the same reason, and they would make me feel generally emotionally awful. I have read that oral estrogen cancels out free testosterone that our bodies use, and I'm making a guess that that is totally what happens to me. and also that my T overall is lowered by menopause.
Anyway, the stuff works wonders for me!! I am using a testosterone cream/gel prescribed by my gyno and compounded by a pharmacy. It definitely brought back a good bit of my libido, which was always very high, but also mental energy and "sense of self" that was seriously missing since peri. It's actually kind of like a miracle. I use one or two clicks a day. The cream is 4 mg/gm, and each click is 1/4 gram of the cream itself, which means I am using 1-2 mg of t. per day. I use it on upper thighs, upper arms, lower abdomen or vaginally (alll recommended by doc and pharmacy).
I think i might be experiencing very mild side effects to the T when i regularly use the 2mg/day: more hair on my arms, legs and face and a teeeeny bit of receding at my forehead. That said, the hair on face etc is very fine, and the thing is, i always had it when i was younger, along with very fine blond leg hair and arm hair. With the beginning of peri, my hair (ie leg hair) just basically went away, which was convenient but a teeny bit disturbing. So the possible mild side effect of T is pretty much what I had before? No voice deepening or anything scary though.
I do plan on upping my estrogen next, supplementing the Duavee with a low dose patch, and then trying the patch by itself (along with progesterone of course) to see how i do on something other than oral estrogen, which, though I love the idea of being protected from cancer, don't love the idea of oral estrogen. But I'm pretty sure I'm keeping the T, it's the brightest spot in this hormone mess so far.