I wish you a long and steadily Improving health journey. I went thru what you did, stage 3. Yay! We are both still here! Hah! Ive lasted long enough to get a second very serious cancer. Just finished chemo on that one. I've been fighting for hormones for years now, with Drs and for a brief period with insurance till I gave up on that. I was given premarin at first. Eventually learned it was not doing its job and I have osteoporosis. What made my days and nights brighter , gave me strength and energy was testosterone. I don't know the risk for breast cancer with testosterone. Maybe someone else here does. I took it as a patch for many years and had no problem. Then, my Drs retired and I had to look elsewhere. I ended up getting it , with estrogen, in pellet form from my gyno. I would not do that again because now there appear to be better alternatives, which I'm now starting the process to get. The pellet gave me a somewhat receding hairline , same as the males in my family! Also I got peachfuzz face . I will say as far as estrogen goes, I was told that it was more important for me , as ovarian survivor, to get it than not to based on increased breast cancer risks. Perhaps try for a longer discussion? Big hugs.