SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Middle-aged women who said their sex drives were stuck in park after they underwent hysterectomies found that a testosterone-laced skin patch increased their libidos, according to a new study.
Women naturally produce the male sex hormone, which controls sexual desire, but that stops when the ovaries are removed."About 43 percent of the 14 million women who have had hysterectomies reported sexual dysfunction after their surgeries -- a decrease in sex drive, a decrease in sexual pleasure, an inability to have an orgasm and sometimes depression," said the study's primary author, Dr. Glenn Braunstein of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
He presented the data Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's annual meeting.
Proctor & Gamble, which makes a testosterone patch for men experiencing sexual dysfunction, funded Braunstein's study to see whether similar patches would help women.
He studied 57 women for nine months. All had been on hormone replacement therapy for at least a year. The average age was 47.
The women were given either two placebos; a placebo and a patch containing a normal level of testosterone usually found in a woman's body; or two patches containing high levels of testosterone.
They changed the patches every three to four days.
More than half reported an increase in sexual desire with patches that contained normal (150 micrograms) and high levels (300 micrograms) of testosterone.
Braunstein found that estrogen levels in the women remained the same, hot flashes did not increase and there was no acne or increased hair growth in unwanted areas.
The next step is a broader study involving more women over a longer period of time, he said.
"There is nothing really out there for women to treat this type of problem," Braunstein said, noting there are oral medications, creams and injections to deliver testosterone to the body, but they can cause side-effects like acne, liver abnormalities or moodiness.
Dr. Margaret Wierman, chairwoman of the meeting, warned that older women shouldn't interpret the findings as a way to increase their libido and cure depression through male hormones.
"I definitely do not think we should think of this as a Viagra for women," she said.