Comparison of salivary versus serum testosterone levels in postmenopausal women receiving transdermal testosterone supplementation versus placebo.
OBJECTIVE
Clinical assessment of androgen action and its correlation to testosterone levels in women has been challenging. The current gold standard for measuring biologically active testosterone (T) is serum free T by equilibrium dialysis. Alternative methods are desirable due to the cost, complexity, and limited availability of the equilibrium dialysis method. Salivary testing has been proposed as a possible substitute for serum testing. This study compared salivary versus serum measurements of total T (TT), bioavailable T (BT; consisting of free T [FT] and albumin-bound T), and FT from samples collected simultaneously in women who were either receiving transdermal T patch supplementation (300 microg/d) or a placebo patch.


METHODS
Naturally and surgically postmenopausal women receiving concomitant hormone therapy were recruited to participate in a 24- to 52-week phase III trial of a 300 microg/day transdermal T patch for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder.


RESULTS
Initial analysis demonstrated high correlations between TT, BT, and FT levels (r = 0.776-0.855). However, there was no correlation with salivary T levels for any of the serum T subtypes (r = 0.170-0.261). After log transformation, salivary T correlated modestly with BT (r = 0.436, P < 0.001), FT (r = 0.452, P < 0.001), and TT (r = 0.438, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Although salivary testing of T concentrations is an appealing alternative because it is inexpensive and noninvasive, our results do not support the routine use of salivary T levels in postmenopausal women.
Flyckt
Rebecca L
RL
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center MacDonald Women's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
Liu
James
J
Frasure
Heidi
H
Wekselman
Kathryn
K
Buch
Akshay
A
Kingsberg
Sheryl A
SA