Patch increases sexual desire in menopausal women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Treatment with a patch
containing the hormone testosterone can increase sexual desire
and activity in women who experience reduced sexual desire
after surgical removal of the ovaries.

The findings are based on a study of 447 women diagnosed
with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) after ovarian
surgery, who were randomly assigned to receive testosterone
patches, at one of three doses, or placebo for 24 weeks. A
total of 318 women completed the trial.

Compared with placebo, the intermediate-dose testosterone
patch significantly improved sexual desire and increased the
frequency of satisfying sexual activity, lead author Dr. Glenn
D. Braunstein, from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,
and colleagues report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The lower testosterone dose offered no benefits, whereas
the higher dose was no better than the intermediate dose.

The testosterone patch was well tolerated at the doses
studied and no serious adverse effects were seen, the report
indicates.

While the findings suggest a role for testosterone patches
in the treatment of HSDD, the author of a related editorial
comments that the optimal dose remains to be determined.

Likening the search for the right dose to “Goldilocks and
the Three Bears,” Dr. Robert A. Vigersky, from the Walter Reed
Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, notes that it is still
unclear if the intermediate-dose patch is “just right.”

Vigersky adds that the “benefits found by Braunstein and
colleagues are modest and not clearly dose related.”

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, July 25, 2005.