title: Genital and subjective measurement of the time course effects of an acute dose of testosterone vs. placebo in postmenopausal women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the effects of an acute dose of methyltestosterone (MT) on physiological (genital) and subjective sexual response in postmenopausal women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) and self-reported sexual response.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized, 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington-Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heard-Davison
authors.affiliation: The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. Electronic address: jheiman@indiana.edu.
authors.forename: Julia R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Heiman
authors.affiliation: University of Washington-Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuffel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000728:Androgens / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008777:Methyltestosterone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017698:Postmenopause; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000187:drug effects; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000187:drug effects; D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological / Q000188:drug therapy*; D020018:Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological / Q000188:drug therapy*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014621:Vagina / Q000098:blood supply*; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D000728:Androgens; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D008777:Methyltestosterone