Testosterone patch, women’s pink Viagra
‘When it comes to sex, age should not play a spoil sport.’ In a bid to support the call Proctor & Gamble Co., the Cincinnati based consumer-products giant, has successfully tested a testosterone patch for women which gives postmenopausal women a libido lift-up.
Intrinsa patch, under development since 1999, restored flagging libido with volunteers reporting almost double satisfying sexual episodes per month as compared to before using the patches, researchers touted.
The patch when used delivers a steady stream of testosterone, a hormone linked to sexual drive in men and women.
The study embarked to assess the effect of testosterone patch on women enrolled 800 postmenopausal women who weren’t taking any prior estrogen therapy. All women reported extremely low sexual desire with a maximum of 2-1/2 satisfying sexual episodes per month.
While a third of the participants received a 300 micrograms testosterone patch, another third were assigned to receive 150 micrograms of testosterone daily. The remaining one-third wore a placebo patch.
For six months, women were asked to keep track of their sexual encounters measuring their sexual response based on desire, arousal, orgasm, and pleasure.
At the end of six months, women who wore the active patch delivering a higher dose reported on average 2.1 additional satisfying sexual episodes per month, compared to 1.2 additional episodes among lower dose women and 0.7 additional satisfying episodes for women wearing placebo.
“This is the first study to show that when used alone, testosterone administered by a skin patch significantly improves sexual well-being in postmenopausal women” study’s lead author, Dr. Susan R. Davis, a professor of women’s health at Monash University in Australia noted.
Unfortunately, testosterone patches were lined with adverse effects. Of the two-third women put on active testosterone patches 4 developed breast cancer, as compared to none in the placebo group. The other significant side effect was unwanted hair growth.
Weighing the results of the study critically, Dr. Steven Goldstein, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, said, “It shows that in the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, testosterone does have a positive effect on the frequency of satisfying sexual experiences.”
But, what about long-term effects?” he asked. “You have to wear this patch all the time. That means you’re subjecting yourself to a hormone 24/7″ he added.
The results of the study feature in the November 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
