Women disguise themselves as men to buy testosterone after struggling to get prescriptions

Women disguise themselves as men to buy testosterone after struggling to get prescriptions Women struggling to access testosterone through the NHS have turned to private care and online pharmacies, with doctors warning that buying the hormone without being prescribed can lead to serious risks Women are pretending to be men to buy testosterone online, after struggling to get the hormone through the NHS in Wales. Some women have been left paying privately or turning to online pharmacies, with one woman even filling out a questionnaire as a man after losing access to her NHS prescription when she moved to a neighbouring health board. But doctors warned that women buying testosterone without proper medical supervision can put themselves at serious risk, with one menopause specialist saying she has seen patients taking doses up to 12 times higher than the safe level. Menopause specialist Dr Michelle Olver said she had seen a “very sharp increase” in referrals from women wanting testosterone, as growing numbers seek help with symptoms following menopause. She said it was “incredibly sad” that women were lying to obtain the hormone because they were being “denied access to something they need”. Testosterone is naturally produced by women, but levels fall as they get older. It can be prescribed after menopause to help women experiencing reduced libido, while some also report improvements in their energy and cognition. There is no testosterone product licensed specifically for women in the UK. Instead, doctors prescribe a testosterone product made for men, but at a much lower dose. Dr Olver warned of the dangers of taking too much testosterone. She said: “We want to maintain women in female physiological range for testosterone. We don’t want them to have sky-high levels. When you persistently have very high testosterone levels you can get undesirable permanent side effects. Nobody wants to have baldness, deepening of the voice or enlargement of the clitoris.” One woman said she had originally been prescribed testosterone by her NHS GP. But after moving to a neighbouring health board, she was no longer able to get the treatment through the NHS, according to BBC Wales. She eventually paid for a private consultation, prescription and blood tests. Once her levels had stabilised, she turned to an online pharmacy - where she pretended to be a man on its questionnaire so she could buy testosterone at a fraction of the cost. Emma Thomas, co-founder of menopause support group Menopals Cardiff and Vale, said women had repeatedly told the group about the difficulties they had faced trying to access testosterone through the NHS. She said: “We hear a lot of women saying their GP thinks there’s no need for it or their surgery won’t prescribe it." Similarly Dr Rebeccah Tomlinson, a GP who runs an NHS menopause clinic, said where a woman lives can play a major role in whether she is able to get the treatment. She said: “It’s a postcode lottery and very dependent on the practice and the clinician, but you can hit barriers along the way. “It’s really difficult when you might know somebody else who’s going through exactly the same thing and has sailed through the process and might not have gone into secondary care. There is no consistency across the board unfortunately.” There are seven health boards in Wales and Dr Olver said they do not all take the same approach to prescribing testosterone as some restrict access to specialists, while others have different arrangements for women seeking treatment. She said: “We have definitely seen a very sharp increase in testosterone referrals from primary care - for women wanting to access it. It is difficult to meet demand and we have a testosterone clinic set up now for women who want to trial it.” She added: “One of the main reasons for this disparity is because we don’t have a licenced product for woman on the NHS." Androfeme cream, a testosterone product for women has now received a UK licence, but it is yet to go through a NICE assessment before a decision can be made on whether it should become routinely available on the NHS.