Some studies suggest that testosterone therapy has additional effects , which include increased bone mineral density and decreased serum high-density lipoprotein ( HDL ) cholesterol .
The clinical sequelae of oestrogen deficiency during menopause are undoubted .
However , the pathophysiological role of testosterone during the menopause is less clear .
Several r and omized , placebo-controlled clinical trials suggest that testosterone therapy improves sexual function in postmenopausal women .
Genital and subjective measurement of the time course effects of an acute dose of testosterone vs. placebo in postmenopausal women.
INTRODUCTION Recent research on the impact of testosterone ( T ) on female sexual function has yielded inconsistent results , and few studies have used physiological measures of genital arousal . AIM This study examined the effects of an acute dose of methyltestosterone ( MT ) on physiological ( genital ) and subjective sexual response in postmenopausal women . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Vaginal pulse amplitude ( VPA ) and self-reported sexual response . METHODS R and omized , double-blind , crossover , placebo-controlled trial of 5 mg MT , consisting of two separate 8-hour visits . Participants were 10 postmenopausal women without sexual dysfunction . Participants viewed both neutral and erotic video segments during five post-dose trials while their genital and subjective responses were monitored . RESULTS The Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated a significant difference in VPA between the T ( M = 0.018 , SD = 0.018 ) and placebo ( M = 0.016 , SD = 0.017 ) conditions at 4.5 hours post-dose ( P = 0.03 ) . Higher difference scores were noted for 80 % of subjects during the T condition at 4.5 hours , in contrast with only 50 % of subjects responding to T at the other four time points . No differences were found on VPA relative change scores or subjective sexual arousal scores . When summed across all five time points , genital and subjective measures were correlated regardless of medication condition ( 0.62 and 0.60 for self-reported physical and mental sexual arousal scores , respectively ) . CONCLUSIONS These findings in postmenopausal women combined with those of two previous investigations in premenopausal women demonstrate a probable acute-dose time delay for genital sexual effects of exogenous T with no change in self-reported sexual arousal . Further investigation is needed to determine whether acute dosing of T has a consistent and predictable impact on genital arousal that has promise for the treatment of any subgroup of women with sexual disorders
Some studies suggest that testosterone therapy has additional effects , which include increased bone mineral density and decreased serum high-density lipoprotein ( HDL ) cholesterol .
The clinical sequelae of oestrogen deficiency during menopause are undoubted .
However , the pathophysiological role of testosterone during the menopause is less clear .
Several r and omized , placebo-controlled clinical trials suggest that testosterone therapy improves sexual function in postmenopausal women .