Sex Patch Revs Menopausal Women

[meera]

Menopausal women had more sex and were happier about it when using an experimental hormone patch hailed by some as a possible female equivalent of Viagra, doctors reported Tuesday.

Women on the testosterone patch had sex about four times more than they usually did in two months compared to only one additional session for women given a fake patch containing no hormone, a study found.

Those who got real patches also reported more arousal, pleasure and orgasms, and had better self-images.

"We found an increase in activity, an increase in desire and a decrease in distress," said Dr. Robin Kroll, a Seattle gynecologist who reported results of the study Tuesday at a meeting of infertility specialists. The research was sponsored by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, which is developing the patch, called Intrinsa, with Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.

It was the first big test of the patch in women who went through menopause naturally and complained of low sex drive. A previous study in women who became menopausal because of surgery found similar results, and the companies already have asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to approve its use for those women.

"The testosterone patch looks very promising. It may be the answer for what women are looking for for a libido lag in menopause," said Dr. Marian Damewood, a University of Pennsylvania gynecologist who is president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

As many as 30 million American women will have gone through natural menopause by 2005 and another 10 million will be menopausal because of having their ovaries removed, Procter & Gamble estimates.

Lack of interest in or pleasure from sex is a big problem for such women, partly because of the decline in testosterone. Even though men make far more of this hormone than women, females still need a certain amount of it to have healthy sex lives, experts say.

Taking testosterone pills isn't advised because it can cause excessive hair growth, liver complications and other problems. Testosterone creams that are applied to the inner thigh are an option, but they've gotten little scientific study, Damewood said.

She had no role in the patch study, which involved 549 women in Seattle, Denver, Boston, Canada and Australia, averaging 54 years old, who were upset because they didn't feel like having sex. They were assigned to get either hormone or placebo patches. All kept logs of their sexual activities and filled out standard questionnaires about their feelings.

Those on the hormone patch improved in all measures. Side effects were mild and reported by three out of four women in each group - mostly excess facial hair and red or irritated skin from the patch, Kroll said.

"None of those patients wanted to stop taking the testosterone," she added.

The experiment was done over six months, the longest period of time the patch has been tested.

Meanwhile, a survey of 2,000 American women sponsored by Procter & Gamble and done by the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey found that one in three naturally menopausal women reported lackluster sex lives, but only one in 10 said it upset them.

LINK:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in658543.shtml

[narcsarge]

Amazing what becomes normal heh Meera! Ain't got none! Can't get none!

[Hawkwind]

If they tried to take my test away I would flip a nutty! I suffered the blah's for well over a year after my hyst. Estrogen alone did nothing for me. I have a great doc though. I told her I wanted to add test to my HRT and she was all for it. I felt so much better. I had my energy levels back as well as my libido. We even bumped up my test dose a year later.

Not sure a patch would work for me though. I have a latex allergy. They had me on the 'micro-dot' estrogen patch and I broke out from the latex in that and the other estrogen patch they had me try.

[narcsarge]

Don't you hate it when you allergic to the cure! Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for there to be an alternative.

[Hawkwind]

S'okay, I'm on an estro-test 'script. As long as they don't pull it off the shelves for any strange reason I'm good.

[narcsarge]

Glad that you are doing well! Keep it up and keep up the training. Nothing says "gore-geous" better then a toned physique! Hormones play such a huge role in what we do! I ofter wonde why it took 40+ years for my body to figure out how to use testosterone to build muscle. It sucked being the 145lb stick man!

[Hawkwind]

Thanks narcsarge,
It's rather ironic, it wasn't until my hormone's were a complete disaster that I decided I had better learn about them and figure out how to use them to my advantage. Screwed up hormones cause a host of problems.

[narcsarge]

FYI they mess your sig other's mental health too!

[Hawkwind]

Oh yeah they do! I was a terror and used to shut myself away from the whole family when my hormones were off kilter. I always warned them, "mom is not stable"...so they wouldn't take it personally.

My mom had similar problems and I bore the brunt of her emotional and physical outbursts (read abuse), I didn't want my family to suffer at my expense. I suffered for years with endo. I was in stage IV when I finally decided enough was enough, thankfully I found a doctor that agreed with me and scheduled me for surgery even though I was under 40 at the time.

[narcsarge]

Good on ya! I wish my other half would take me into consideration with all her ailments. Not to get into it, it is not germain to this thread, but with her physical limitations she is really grouchy a lot. She does apologize afterwards but I feel like one of those Whack-A-Mole games!

[Hawkwind]

Sorry to hear that. I knew I had a temper...combine a hormone imbalance to that temper and I was volatile and knew it. I've always felt badly about the few outbursts my family did experience. I didn't want to become like my mother.

I've met more than a few women over the years that I felt suffered from hormone imbalances. I was also shocked to find that many of them felt that their husbands, so's and families could just 'deal' with them! To me that was totally unfair. Even if it was only a week or so each month. No family needs to suffer through a tyranical woman.

Testosterone therapy is just the tip of the 'iceburg' when it comes to female hormone problems.

[narcsarge]

Thanks for the info. My so's issues are multiple. Although I don't think it is hormonal at this point. She has too many Drs. and has so much blood work done every year that her hormones are monitored to the nth degree.