A woman's lot: overpaying the price for male hormone gel

As evidence grows that testosterone can help middle-aged women, so too is the gap between what they're charged and what men pay for the same products.

- Iona Bain reports

The days of selling the same medical treatment to men and women at different prices are sadly not behind us.

Take testosterone. It’s a hormone prescribed to both sexes to restore libido in middle age. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that it can ease other perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms such as exhaustion, brain fog, low mood and even low bone density.

The problem? Testosterone is only licensed for men in the UK. Guidelines say there’s “insufficient data” to support prescribing it for women, except to treat low sexual desire. Undeterred, women are buying testosterone gel “off label” from online pharmacies, spurred on by menopause campaigners such as Dr Louise Newson and Dr Nighat Arif, who argue that NHS prescribing is a restrictive postcode lottery.