I have been on HRT for seven years and t

The most useful thing you can do before Friday is to stop adding anything to your own HRT on your own — and take the whole list, including the testosterone, to the GP. A full medication review is a real move; another home experiment is not, and eight months of exhaustion deserves a clinician's eyes more than a tenth thing to try.

1. What you tried, and the better alternative

What you tried: adding testosterone yourself, on top of seven years of HRT.

Why that is the wrong lever here: nobody has assessed what it is meant to treat for *you*, what it is doing alongside your HRT, or whether the exhaustion is even hormonal. Two hormones changed at once is the hardest version to read afterwards.

The limit of this answer: I can't tell you what's causing the exhaustion. This is not a diagnosis, not a test list, and not a medication decision — it is not a substitute for your prescriber. The useful thing I can do is make Friday's appointment much harder to waste.

What to do instead — tonight, about 20 minutes:

• No more of the testosterone. It was never prescribed to you, so it is not yours to continue. Keep the packet or the bottle.
• Keep taking your own prescribed HRT exactly as prescribed. Do not stop it to "see if the tiredness lifts" — that changes two things at once and leaves you worse off, not better.
• Bag everything into one pile: HRT, the testosterone, anything from the pharmacy, anything a friend, gym or online seller gave you. One bag, one pharmacy if you can. That bag is the actual intervention here.
• Write one page, three columns: what / since when / what changed. Fatigue started roughly eight months ago. HRT seven years. "Labs normal" — write the actual numbers and the date, not the word normal. Testosterone: when you started, how often, what pattern (regular, sometimes, on and off).
• Keep the sleep log you already have in the kitchen. It is the most useful thing you own. Add three things per night: hours actually asleep, times woken, and how rested you felt getting up. Don't tidy it to look better — the honest version is the useful one.
• Kitchen, no shopping: eat one real meal with protein and something iron-containing you already have (eggs, beans, lentils, greens, meat), drink water before you feel tired, and get ten minutes of daylight early. That's the whole list. No powders, no new tubs.

Screenshot this for Friday:

1. "Eight months of exhaustion, my labs were normal — what haven't we looked at yet?"
2. "Could the type, dose or way I'm taking the HRT be part of it?" (The NHS page below notes a GP may suggest changing the dose, the type of HRT, or how it's taken — for example tablets to patches — to help with side effects.)
3. "Tiredness, dizziness and low mood are listed as progestogen side effects. Is that the part worth looking at first?"
4. "I added testosterone myself. What do you want me to do about it, and is there anything about coming off it that you want to supervise?"
5. "Can we review everything I take in one go, including supplements?"
6. "What would mean I should not wait until the next appointment?"

*Side effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT)*, NHS medicines pages (nhs.uk), checked 9 October 2026. It lists feeling tired or dizzy and mood changes among progestogen side effects, says side effects often settle over time but to speak to a GP if they are severe or continue beyond three months, and notes bleeding after your periods have stopped should be reported.

2. The avoid list

• No more self-started testosterone, and nothing bought from an online seller or shared with anyone. Interactions with your HRT are the prescriber's job, not the internet's.
• Do not stop your prescribed HRT on your own.
• No hormone-balancing herbs, "testosterone boosters", mystery powders, or iron tablets you didn't talk to the doctor about first. They can interact with what you are already taking, and you can't tell what's in them.
• Do not use a home number as reassurance. Normal results at home do not close this question.
• Do not let "the labs were normal" end the appointment. It's the start of the list, not the end of it.

3. Red flags — when to stop the home work

Call your local emergency number now, don't wait for Friday:

• Chest pain or pressure, tightness or heaviness, especially spreading to your back, jaw or arm, or with sweating, nausea, breathlessness or feeling faint.
• Sudden breathlessness, or collapse, or you cannot be woken.
• Sudden weakness or numbness on one side, slurred speech, or loss of vision.
• A fit, or new confusion.
• Black, tarry stools, or vomiting blood.
• Thoughts of harming yourself, or feeling you cannot stay safe.

Contact the GP or ask for an urgent appointment (don't wait for Friday):

• Vaginal bleeding that is new, heavier than before, or happening after your periods have stopped. The NHS page advises telling a GP at the first review after three months if bleeding is irregular, and speaking to a GP sooner if you bleed after you have not had periods for a while. On seven years of HRT, that's a question for your prescriber, not something to sit on.

What success looks like in 24 hours

Not a cure, and not an energy jump — a usable Monday. Concretely: the bag is packed, the one page is written with real dates and numbers, tonight's sleep log line is filled in honestly, and nothing new is going into your body that a clinician hasn't agreed to. If Friday goes well, you walk out with either a plan of what to check or a plan of what to change — both are forward movement from where eight months of guessing has left you.

One question, because it changes the urgency: is any of that vaginal bleeding happening right now?