A steroid patch could be the key to
spicing up older women's sex lives.
Image: iStockphoto

An international study, led by Monash University's Professor Susan Davis has confirmed steroid patches can significantly increase the sex drive of postmenopausal women not using hormone replacement therapies.

It is the first study in the world to show that when used alone, testosterone administered by a skin patch significantly improved sexual well-being in postmenopausal women.

Professor Davis was the principal investigator for the study and is Professor of Women's Health, Department of Medicine at Monash University. She said loss of sexual interest was common amongst women after menopause and in many instances resulted in women seeking medical treatment.

"Several studies have shown that treatment with testosterone improves sexual well-being in postmenopausal women using oestrogen therapy, but many women do not want to take oestrogen. What we have found is that treatment with a patch delivering 300 micrograms (ug) of testosterone each day results in meaningful improvement in sexual function in postmenopausal women with low libido who are using no other hormone therapy," Professor Davis said.

The study, supported by Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals USA, involved 814 postmenopausal women from 65 centres in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Women often worry about the side effects of using testosterone but it is important to note that testosterone is an essential female hormone and premenopausal women normally have much more testosterone circulating in their blood at any given moment than oestrogen. In this study few side effects were documented," Professor Davis said.

Participants were selected at random to receive either a patch delivering 300ug of testosterone daily or a placebo.

At the commencement of the study women reported that approximately 50 per cent of all sexual episodes were satisfying. By 24 weeks the group receiving the 300ug testosterone patch reported on average an increase of 2.1 extra satisfying sexual episodes per month versus an increase of 0.7 in the placebo group. Treatment effects did not differ between naturally and surgically menopausal women.

Professor Davis said more work was underway to confirm the safety of testosterone therapy in greater numbers of women over a longer period of time.

Testosterone therapy is not approved for use in women in Australia.