Mental health professionals have long debated the proper treatment approach for postmenopausal women with decreased sexual desire. An article published online in Modern Medicine (11/5/08) examines this issue.The article reports on a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers studied 814 women with decreased sexual desire, “who were randomized to receive a patch delivering 150 or 300 μg a day of testosterone or placebo for a period of 52 weeks.” The results were interesting. “At week 24, the researchers measured the efficacy of the hormone and found that for the 300 μg testosterone group, there was an increase in the four-week frequency of satisfying sexual episodes of 2.1 versus 1.2 for the 150 μg group and 0.7 for the placebo group. Women in both treatment groups reported increased desire and decreased distress, the study showed. However, women in the 300 μg treatment group had more androgenic adverse events, such as unwanted hair growth, the investigators found.” The results of this study suggest that testosterone may play a role in the treatment of postmenopausal women with decreased sexual desire.
The Bottom Line: The results of this study suggest that testosterone may play a role in the treatment of postmenopausal women with decreased sexual desire.
Reference: Article
Sources: See also blogposts in: Psychiatric Disorders: General
Dr. Jeffrey Speller
Dr. Tanya Korkosz
Psychopharmacology Associates of New England
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