Tomlinson 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.”
Olver runs the menopause clinic at Aneurin Bevan’s health board and 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 said each of the seven health boards in Wales used a traffic light system – some are red, meaning only specialists can prescribe the drug.
There are two amber options – one involves a GP requesting the support or agreement from a hospital specialist that testosterone is appropriate for a patient.
The second requires the hospital specialist to start and monitor the prescription with a “shared care agreement”, with GP’s continuing to prescribe it.
“One of the main reasons for this disparity is because we don’t have a licenced product for woman on the NHS,” Olver said.
A female testosterone product has been available in other countries for many years, and is available from private clinics across the UK.
Olver said it had now achieved a licence in the UK but still needed to be appraised by NICE, external to determine if it was cost-effective to use in the NHS, at which point discussions would also be required with the pharmaceutical industry about the cost to the NHS.
Currently the female product, Androfeme, costs the NHS around £100, but the male product, Testogel, is £30.
“Studies show about 60% of women will find benefit in improving their libido,” said Olver.
“It’s really important to manage expectations, because it’s not this wonder drug that sometimes it’s made out to be on social media.
“There’s lots of reasons why women don’t want to be intimate – some of those will be external factors, some will be anatomical.
“So it’s really important to be fully counselled on what to expect when using testosterone, but also the limitations of its use.”
The Welsh government said: “All health boards are expected to adhere to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines on identification and management of menopause including providing individualised care when prescribing HRT.
“We are aware that this may include some practitioners prescribing testosterone for some women.
“We expect all health boards to conform to any recommendation made by NICE in relation to prescribing testosterone when its guidance is published.”
