After just three days on testosterone I was totally transformed. What happened next surprised even me. Don't fall into the same trap: NADINE DORRIES

On certain days earlier this year, I began to feel as though I was losing my mind. I even started Googling ‘signs and symptoms of dementia’. Then I realised almost every woman I knew of my age – 68 – was experiencing the same symptoms, and doing the same frantic internet search. It had been gradual but cumulative. There were incidents of what felt like proper memory loss, a perpetual brain fog, a tiredness verging on exhaustion. I coped with all this day-to-day, and even laughed it off – until it really began to affect my life and I could ignore it no longer. Worse, the people around me started to notice it too. One day I left the house to catch the train to London, only to receive a text message from my cleaner an hour later: ‘I’ve switched the kitchen tap off,’ with a laughing emoji. I lost count of the number of occasions I opened the oven door to find a lump of near charcoal on a shelf that had once been a jacket potato or, on one occasion, a whole chicken, entirely forgotten and shrivelled to a cinder. In fact, I often switched on the oven and then left the house altogether, my memory blank to the slowly charring dish inside. My forgetfulness had become the butt of family jokes, and with Liverpool-Irish DNA running through the veins of my three grown-up daughters, it was ruthless. But if I’m honest, it was also beginning to worry me. What saved me from outright panic was the fact that friends all seemed to be in the same leaky boat. We often shared stories of the latest catastrophes to beset us. Someone had forgotten which car park she’d left the car in on an out-of-town shopping trip. Another had found a pair of lost reading glasses in the cheese compartment of the fridge. 'My forgetfulness had become the butt of family jokes', writes Nadine Dorries. 'But what saved me from outright panic was the fact friends all seemed to be in the same leaky boat' ‘At least we can laugh about it,’ a close friend would say. ‘Everyone has senior moments at our age.’ But really, what was there to laugh about? The onset of painful muscles, falling into a deep sleep in the middle of the afternoon, wading through treacle every time I tried to remember dates or names – none of it felt very funny. Most uncharacteristic of all, my self-confidence drained away and I found myself withdrawing socially. The person who was once always the last to leave a party was now turning down invitations and had become a chronic no show. Writing had long been the creative joy in my life, and I found myself worrying that I was no longer good enough to do that, and if that was the case, who even was I any more? What happened to other women who reached this stage of life? Did they just retreat indoors and hide? Of course, the answer was yes, they did. It was a depressing prospect. But it was only when my best friend told me that ‘we need to embrace older age with open arms and good grace’, that I decided to rebel. My mind was (briefly) clear as a bell. There was no way I was welcoming in this decline without a fight. It was time to visit my GP. I first started taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at the age of 49, rubbing in the oestrogen gel and popping the progesterone pills daily like millions of women. The relief the drugs brought from mood swings, hot flushes and sleepless nights was so significant, I swore I’d be on them until the day I died. I’m still on them 20 years later. Last year I did try to come off them but in a matter of weeks the hot flushes had returned with a vengeance and the other me emerged like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction ready to sabotage the life I had built on my miracle gel. As a former health minister, Nadine had discussed HRT at length with a range of experts and advocates, including presenter Davina McCall (here holding a tube of testosterone)  Did I need more HRT? Was that the answer to my brain fog and lethargy? Or did I have to accept this version of me that I barely recognised? At that point, I began to notice a compelling new difference in a small number of friends who seemed to have escaped the leaky boat. Each confided in me that they had turbo-charged their 60-plus sex life by adding testosterone to their HRT regime. They felt like ‘new women’, they were not shy to say. ‘It’s as good as when I was in my 20s,’ one friend confided. My eyes were on stalks. I have to confess, my own libido had disappeared at the same time the mental and physical fatigue had arrived. It was time to wake up and do some research. Having been the health minister who launched the ‘call for evidence’ that underpinned the first Women’s Health Strategy in 2021, I’d discussed HRT at length with various experts and advocates, including the presenter Davina McCall. She was extremely knowledgeable and well informed, and in 2022 made the C4 documentary Sex, Mind And The Menopause, in which she said that testosterone can be the ‘missing piece in the puzzle’ for women on HRT. Now I recalled that line and wondered if this was the puzzle piece I needed, too. Then there’s my near neighbour here in the Cotswolds, former Bake Off judge Prue Leith, 86. She credits testosterone as being ‘great for libido – you feel younger and better’ and the key to her working well into her ninth decade. Testosterone is a female hormone, according to the British Menopause Society (BMS). In nicely official language, the BMS says it is essential for ‘modulation of sexual behaviour’ in women, but, ever cautious, also says there are no good studies to prove beneficial effects on cognition, mood or energy, and that more investigation should be done. But that’s not what testosterone evangelists say. Nor my friends, who claim clearer minds and invigorated bodies. About half of a woman’s testosterone comes from her ovaries, which obviously diminishes with menopause, while the other half is produced by the adrenal glands on top of the kidneys. That source slows down with age, too. At 68, my levels must have been on the floor. Thankfully I have an amazing private GP who was totally on board. Many women report that when they see their GPs, they’re warned they’ll grow a beard or are asked intrusive questions about their sex lives – as though having one over 60 is unusual. But why suffer the effects of ageing if you don’t have to? I had a blood test and my doctor confirmed a testosterone level of 0.7ng/dL, which is on the lowest end of low. Not quite zero, but not far off. When my pink tube of testosterone, AndroFeme, arrived a week later, I promptly rubbed the pea-sized amount onto my inner thigh as instructed. Readers of my column will know that the effects were almost instantaneous. As I documented in April, within 24 hours I could tell the difference. Within 48 hours I too had the twinkle back in my eye, which had been missing for some time. But what happened next surprised even me. After rubbing a small amount of testosterone gel onto her skin, Nadine says she felt less tired and her brain fog soon cleared: 'I had the twinkle back in my eye which had been missing' Nadine's advice to other women? 'Don’t embrace old age. Explore the alternatives with whoever backs you, and live your life to the full' Within a week, the exhaustion had abated too – but the most significant benefit of all was that over the next month the brain fog completely cleared. It felt as though the sun was shining on a bright and beautiful morning following weeks of rain. I could once again think clearly, and the relief was immense. Suddenly I could string a sentence together without forgetting a name or even what I was talking about. I looked forward to writing, and the book my agent has been nagging me for is now almost finished. In fact I was amazed that the testosterone worked so fast and so well. I had honestly forgotten how good life can be. Unlike the BMS and the English NHS, the Scottish NHS says that testosterone replacement therapy in women increases ‘dopamine levels in the central nervous system’ and ‘maintains normal metabolic function, muscle and bone strength, urogenital health, mood and cognitive function’. It’s a no brainer then that when a woman’s testosterone level declines, she feels the impact profoundly. Maybe what so many accept as ageing is actually just the loss of a hormone which can be replaced. In fact, we produce more testosterone in our lives than we do oestrogen – between 1.3 and three times as much – yet the science regarding the benefits to women of testosterone replacement therapy is only just emerging. I find this remarkable but unsurprising. Viagra has been available to men for decades and can now be bought over the counter, but women’s loss of libido is still under-researched and under-resourced. So what happened after the first super-charged months of my testosterone experiment? First of all, I didn’t sprout a beard or lose the hair on my scalp, which is another potential side effect, albeit rare. I didn’t even get a hairy spot where I applied the cream on the inside of my thigh, which women commonly report. But, alas, the benefits have not lasted. Hugely welcome as they had been – the clearer thoughts, the energy, the speedier reactions – almost three months in, the positives have begun to subside. My GP suggested we re-test to see what the impact on my testosterone levels had been. Bizarrely, and to my astonishment, my level was down from when we first tested, to 0.6. On the face of it, this is odd but it can happen when replacement therapy begins and the body reacts by shutting down production of the little remaining hormone it’s generating itself, leaving you in an overall deficit. It’s called a feedback loop. Dosage, timing and, in women, reactions with different types of conventional HRT can also affect it. In any case, the advice from my doctor was to increase the amount I rub into my thigh by 50 per cent and to re-test in another three months to see where we are at. That was two days ago, and I can feel the difference already and I’m back on form. It really does work that quickly. I’m lucky I have a fabulous GP who is very much invested in women’s health and wellbeing, but if I have advice to offer other women without such wonderful support, it would be this. Don’t embrace old age. Explore the alternatives with whoever backs you, and live your life to the full. If you do take testosterone, make sure you have your levels re-tested after a set period. Like it or not, we are the guinea pigs for the next generation of women, so they don’t have to go through what we have. Let’s get it right, for them and us. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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