Use of
testosterone in older woman with
hypoactive sexual-desire disorder (HSDD) is controversial. One concern about existing
testosterone therapies for HSDD is the common recommendation to concomitantly administer
estradiol because of the known risks of such
therapy in postmenopausal women. This large, year-long, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of
testosterone therapy in postmenopausal women examined the hypothesis that
testosterone alone would be efficacious in improving HSDD. The results of this trial confirm the improvement in sexual function for postmenopausal women seen in earlier studies using
testosterone in combination with
estradiol, implying that
estradiol administration may not be essential for the beneficial effects of
testosterone. However, this study raised some concerns regarding
testosterone therapy on the risk of breast and
endometrial cancer, highlighting the need for further long-term trials to better assess the long-term safety of this approach for the treatment of HSDD in women.