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HRT Boosts Women's Sex DriveSex or cancer? |
By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
25th of September 2007, 18:46 GMT
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You are familiar with grandma's attempts to get rid of the osteoporosis, facial hair growth and "hot flashes", all linked to menopause, with the help of HRT (hormone therapy) and… next day she is horny. A new research has found that HRT therapy employed to ease menopause symptoms causes a 44% rise in sexual drive in women.
HRT, consisting of estrogen and progesterone,
could improve sex life of post-menopausal women, who experience a libido decrease, but HRT on the other hand can increase cancer risk.
During menopause, the hormonal changes can produce clitoral atrophy and vaginal dryness, turning sex less pleasant.
"Previous studies have estimated that anywhere from 30% to 70% of women report a decline in libido following menopause for various reasons. Sex therapy cannot necessarily boost libido in women who have passed menopause since their loss of interest in sex often has a biological cause. You can't cognitively treat your hormone levels," said Jim Pfaus at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, not involved in this research.
In Europe and Australia, there are testosterone patches, which increase the libido, but in US, they are not approved by Food and Drug Administration due to the lack of studies assessing their long-term side effects. Still, it is known that extra testosterone can cause the growth of facial hair and installation of acne.
The new results come actually from a trial assessing HRT's effects on memory.
90 newly menopausal women received HRT (a combination of progesteron and estrogen named "Prempro") and 90 women in the same condition a placebo, both groups for four months. Afterwards, subjects' verbal memory was checked and compared with that at the beginning of the trial.
Estrogen by itself was already known to improve memory at menopause, but for the Prempro combination, women were no better than their placebo 'counterparts'. The team members also assessed subjects' libido, since previous researches showed that estrogen on its own can boost the libido. In this case, Prempro subjects stated a 33% increase in sexual thoughts and 44% higher sex drive compared to placebo ones.
"It was a surprise to us that the magnitude of the effect was as large as it was. What it's suggesting is that women can get a [libido] boost from Prempro," said lead researcher Pauline Maki at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Larger trials must confirm this effect, but Maki warns that large-scale researches detected a higher cancer risk for certain types of cancer related to HRT. A recent decrease in breast cancer cases in US has been connected to a decline in HRT use.
"The decision to start HRT demands careful consideration. You really have to weigh the risks because estrogen is a growth factor that can stimulate tumor expansion," said Pfaus.
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