Fitness trainer Myra Denousse, 46 years old, carries out Bicep curl exercises during her routine physical fitness session at Afro Fit GYM, TRM Mall along Thika Road, Nairobi on May 12, 2023.
Jane Kimanthi used to love dancing and performing on stage with a band in her younger days.
However, by the time she turned 40, she found herself in a rather disastrous situation.
"I just didn't feel right. My mood was dipping, and my libido was declining,” she admits.
This lack of sex drive began to have a detrimental impact on her long-term relationship.
"We could go for weeks without having sex. Most of the time, I just wasn't interested. At one point, he even suspected me of having an affair.”
Desperate to save the relationship, Jane began researching solutions and consulting clinics. That is how she came across testosterone.
"I was apprehensive because it’s widely assumed that testosterone is only a male hormone. I wondered what it would do to my body. Would my voice break? Would I start growing a beard?” she recalls.
After doing more research, she took a leap of faith and began testosterone therapy. It worked like magic, restoring her energy levels to those of her heyday.
According to a Cleveland Clinic journal, low testosterone can lead to decreased sex drive, depression, and weakness in women. This hormone acts as a chemical messenger, telling your body how to work and what to do. Everyone produces testosterone, but males produce more of it.
“It is okay for women to take testosterone, but I must point out that age dictates how much, if any, you need,” says Myra Denousse, a nutrition, fitness and wellness coach.
"A younger woman would rarely, if ever, need a testosterone boost unless for medical reasons. This is because she can easily generate enough testosterone, especially through exercise, particularly strength training. Older women in perimenopause and menopause will need it at some point. I’d advise doing a hormonal profile first before starting any HRT (hormone replacement therapy).”
However, Denousse notes that testosterone injections for women are hard to come by in Kenya.
"The only country in Africa that I know for sure has this type of dosage is South Africa. So, I would advise any woman who is in a position to access testosterone shots and whose hormonal profile indicates that she needs them to go for it. If administered correctly, testosterone boosts can help women regain energy and strength, prevent muscle loss and bone degeneration, and promote overall hormonal regeneration and regulation.”
Rachel Rubin, MD, a certified urologist and sexual medicine specialist, notes that testosterone boosts are not only prescribed for menopausal or premenopausal women.
"Testosterone is an age-declining hormone. Once you hit your 30s, it starts to decline. I do not know who decided that men should get the testosterone hormone and women the oestrogen hormone, because we all have both of these hormones. When you consider everything together, we are all testosterone-driven beings. In women, testosterone peaks during ovulation, which explains the high libido.”
Rubin notes that birth control is another factor that can destroy women's testosterone levels.
"We give women birth control pills all the time. They boost the level of the synthetic progesterone hormone in a woman's body. They don't replace testosterone. So we are reducing women's testosterone levels, which are very important for human functionality.”
According to data compiled by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Business Authority, testosterone prescriptions for women in the UK rose by 135 per cent between 2021 and 2024.
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