WHAT do women need for a good sex life? According to one of the most rigorous studies to date, it could be a hormone called DHEAS.
鈥淓veryone has been working on a hunch that low blood testosterone is related to low sexual function, but it鈥檚 not, it鈥檚 low DHEAS,鈥� says Susan Davis of the Jean Hailes Foundation in Melbourne, Australia, who presented her findings at the Endocrine Society meeting in New Orleans last week.
Davis and her team monitored hormone levels in the blood of more than 1400 women, aged between 18 and 75, who were randomly recruited using the electoral roll for the Australian state of Victoria. The quality of the women鈥檚 sex lives was assessed using a detailed questionnaire called the Profile of Female Sexual Function.
Advertisement
Both testosterone and DHEAS fell with age, especially during the 20s and 30s, but only DHEAS levels corresponded with sexual function. Women under 45 who had the lowest scores for arousal, responsiveness and desire also had the lowest DHEAS levels. In over-45s the relationship was less strong, but still held for some aspects of sexual function.
Working out the cause of a low sex drive in women is notoriously difficult because emotional factors or a bad relationship can have just as much impact as hormonal deficiencies. So if tests of DHEAS levels can identify which women are most likely to respond to hormone treatment, it could be very useful for doctors.
The team will also test whether taking DHEAS 鈥� which is sold in some countries as an anti-ageing supplement, though there is no evidence that it works 鈥� can improve the sex lives of women. A few doctors already prescribe DHEAS for women with sexual problems, and claim the results are good, but there have been no convincing controlled studies in healthy women.
At the moment, many menopausal women with low libido are offered testosterone implants and creams intended for male disorders. These do seem to help some women. At the New Orleans meeting, John Buster of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reported the results of a trial of testosterone patches intended for women. The patches improved several aspects of sexual function in women who had gone through the menopause because their ovaries had been removed, and who were suffering low libido. The results in women who have undergone natural menopause are expected soon.
The findings that testosterone improves libido yet low blood testosterone is not an indicator of a problem are not necessarily at odds. DHEAS, which is produced by the adrenal glands, is converted into testosterone in cells. 鈥淏lood DHEAS may simply be a better marker of what is happening in cells than blood testosterone,鈥� Davis says.
鈥淗ormones are necessary but not sufficient,鈥� adds Glenn Braunstein, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. 鈥淎 woman may have high testosterone and a lousy relationship, and she will still have a lousy sex life.鈥�
Davis agrees that emotional factors play a big role. 鈥淚f a woman can鈥檛 stand the look of her partner, I can pump her full of hormones and it won鈥檛 make any difference. If she has a new partner, that will have a huge impact on her sexual function.鈥�