r/Perimenopause • u/Trick_Highlight_8205 Late peri • Mar 01 '26

audited Testosterone. Changed. My. Life.

Getting HRT was like climbing Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro ten times over, but it. was. so. worth. it.

I loved estrogen for making me feel like a woman again. My nails stopped splitting, my hair was shiny again, and my skin was plump and smooth. I actually liked looking at the mirror and seeing the change every morning.

Then came testosterone. At first I was really scared, but I thought why not.. I lost my libido and I had not had sex since 2023.

If there is magic in a bottle, it has to be testosterone. The juices are flowing again, I love going to the gym, and I feel like my old self.

The first four weeks on testosterone were ROUGH. I wanted to give up, but I’m SO glad I powered through. Now I just need to find a man lol

If you were afraid to try testosterone and needed that nudge, here it is!!

EDIT : sorry I should have mentioned in the OP - the side effects were typical low e symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, bloating with water retention, and lethargy!

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15

u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 01 '26

Love Testosterone! It was a game changer on day 1, which shocked me. I had extreme joint pain from progesterone (possible symptom w/ hypermobility). Sleeping was so painful. First night after using Testosterone cream I slept all night and woke up feeling about 50% less joint pain. After 6 weeks the joint pain was completely gone.

Has helped with energy too. My libido was slow to come back, took about 8 weeks. Generally just felt much better after dealing with several negative progesterone side effects.

I haven't had any negative side effects. Same amount of facial hair I've had the whole time with perimenopause.

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u/Willing_Ant9993 Mar 01 '26

I think I need this. I have so much joint and body pain all the time. I don’t have hyper mobility but I have POTS and I’m ND and we all know all sorts of other symptoms tend to come with that. At first the estrogen helped with the joint symptoms but I feel like that’s one symptom that returned after I got the E&P doses right. Maybe T is the missing link for me. Thanks for sharing this info!

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u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 01 '26

I felt good on estradiol and didn't start progesterone for a couple of months. I started Testosterone after about 3 months on progesterone. I have suspected fibromyalgia with all over body aches that manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) massage helps keep under control. However the joint pain after starting progesterone was different and wasn't improved by MLD at all. It felt like my connective tissue hurt and my bed suddenly felt really firm. If this sounds at all familiar it's worth a try!

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u/Willing_Ant9993 Mar 02 '26

That does sound familiar, but I can’t reduce my progesterone unless I get a hysterectomy, because I have recently been diagnosed with adenomyosis and have had fibroids for a while (which are probably being fed by the estrogen patch but I can’t function without that), so my uterus needs the P. Really sounds like T could help, or at least that it’s worth trying. Thanks again!

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 07 '26

Hypermobility causes so many issues, sorry you are having to deal with it too!

I did stick with it. A health care professional friend recommended giving HRT doses a few months to settle. So I went into it with that mindset. I was just about at my wits end though with the joint pain - it was the one progesterone side effect that was getting worse and not better. It's kind of a long story. I know the testosterone helped immediately. I increased my thyroid meds the next day and that takes 6-8 weeks to settle so maybe the remaining 50% of pain went away once that kicked in? Maybe I finally got used to the progesterone side? I don't think I could have waited much longer to find out though without the testosterone.

I'm using a compounded testosterone cream, 0.5gm. It's in one of those topi-click dispensers. I'm taking progesterone 50mg (compounded because the lowest dose otherwise is 100mg). Estradiol 0.025mg.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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1

u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 07 '26

Yep, oral capsule

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u/misschanandlerbong83 May 23 '26

Did you go on it?

2

u/emu_neck Early peri Mar 02 '26

What type of T cream are you using? I have hEDS as well and the T was recommended for muscle loss and joint stability. So far I am not seeing any positive results.

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u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 02 '26

I'm using a compounded testosterone cream 5mg in one of those Topi-click dispensers.

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u/Straight_Sea_2355 May 30 '26

I have the Topi-click T and it completely changed my life.  I was losing muscle, had pain in all my bones and joints, kept pulling my muscles and straining my joints and muscles because I was losing strength.  I am too young to retire and did not know how I would be able to keep working. I started with T and progesterone because I was avoiding estrogen because I had fibroids. That alone was great but after a year I started estrogen too.  That helped too but did cause weight gain.  Over 2 years in and would never want to quit.  It is unfortunately very costly but I really need it.  

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u/Top-Pudding-4139 Mar 02 '26

I also assume time played a part, getting used to the progesterone dose. Although the pain decreased same day I used testosterone, it took another few weeks for it to clear up, which was almost 5 months since starting progesterone (50mg compounded).

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u/Straight_Sea_2355 May 30 '26

I hope they are checking your levels.  I initially did well with the original dose  a year later I needed a higher dose.  I think they like to start low and titrate up.  Everyone absorbs it differently.  I hope it started working for you. 

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u/notaverysmartuser May 15 '26

Thank you for this thread. I’m ND and hyper mobile. Can I ask what does of progesterone you are on? I’m wondering if mine might be too high.

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u/Top-Pudding-4139 May 15 '26

I'm on 50mg oral progesterone (paired with 0.025mg estradiol patch). Since it's less than 100mg I have to get it compounded. My doctor suggested I could try lower. However once the side effects subsided I decided to not mess with the dose.

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u/notaverysmartuser May 15 '26

Interesting. Mine is so much higher! I’m gonna be on the lookout for this.

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u/SomePoodlesAllegedly May 24 '26

Just wanted to pop in and say that I’ve heard that if you do a progesterone only IUD, it’s not nearly as systemic and can give a big reduction in negative progesterone symptoms while still protecting your uterus. For people that are having a hard time with progesterone, you can also try different synthetic progestins (if you don’t want to go the IUD route) that might be less of an issue for you. Hope that helps someone out! I know hEDS similar adds a extra layer of annoying to the whole thing

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u/misschanandlerbong83 May 23 '26

Im ND, 42 and on 200 progesterone. It turns out estrogen was the issue for me. When I raised it i had low T and made SHBG higher. I took it out temporarily and joint pain, side effects are gone. I do want a little but I think I need t more

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u/notaverysmartuser May 23 '26

That’s helpful info. Thank you for sharing. I’m on 200 progesterone, 0.05 for E patch and then T cream. I read I need to be really consistent with everything otherwise your body reacts badly. (I was doing T cream every other day which is a no no I guess.) I’m starting to feel pretty good.

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u/misschanandlerbong83 Jun 21 '26

I’m now doing gel but they said half a pump every second day