Rethinking Testosterone is the working title of my current research project – an investigative study exploring use of testosterone in the UK. 

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Testosterone treatment remains under examined and often misrepresented, with patient experiences rarely documented. Spending time with health care professionals, patients and other relevant persons I am asking questions that engage with how this hormone features in the everyday lives of people living in the UK.

Capturing multiple perspectives, I hope to explore what the complexities associated with testosterone use are and in doing so, learn more about how they feature in the narratives of those intimately ‘getting to know’ this hormone.

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My research addresses gaps by exploring tensions associated with testosterone use. It pays attention to human experience and moves across spaces, places and networks; collecting stories and paying attention to the impact of what happens when conventional narratives stop ‘making sense’.

 

Presenting accounts from both patients and professionals this research captures how and where the parameters of hormonal care in the UK are being challenged. Increasingly, testosterone is accessed across multiple platforms by both men and women and this raises important questions that ask us to readdress our presumptions and relearn what we think we know about testosterone.

 

This project is being undertaken as part of my PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is fully funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)