Do women need testosterone too?

Yes — women produce and need testosterone too. It plays a real role in your libido, energy, mood, muscle, and bone, and it declines with age just as it does in men.

Testosterone isn't only a “male” hormone. Women make it (in the ovaries and adrenal glands) at much lower levels than men, but importantly so. It contributes to sex drive, energy and motivation, mood, muscle and bone strength, and overall well-being. Women's testosterone gradually declines from the late twenties onward, and can drop further around menopause or after removal of the ovaries — which is one reason low libido and low energy are common at midlife and don't always respond fully to oestrogen alone.

This is an area that's often overlooked: women with troublesome low libido after menopause sometimes benefit from testosterone, used carefully at low, female-appropriate doses.

What to do: if you have persistent low libido, energy, or mood in midlife that hasn't responded to the usual approaches, ask your GP or a menopause specialist whether testosterone might help — it's prescribed for some women (usually for low sexual desire) under specialist guidance, at small doses. As with any hormone, it's an individual decision, but the key takeaway is that testosterone matters for women, not just men.