Topical testosterone cream does not increase libido

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Topical testosterone cream does not increase libido

Posted May 12th 2007 1:00PM by Kristina Collins
Filed under: Breast Cancer, All Cancers, Clinical Trials, Young Adult Cancers, Products, Cancer Survivors

Sad news for the female cancer survivors out there with decreased libido. Topical testosterone creams do not seem to work. A decrease in libido is a common problem among female cancer survivors.

When is our Viagra going to come out?

Seriously though, its tough being in a position where chemotherapy wrecks havoc on our bodies and ruins our libido -- then we are told there is nothing we can do about it. I'm a breast cancer survivor with estrogen positive disease so it is not recommended that I use any supplemental estrogen.

Testosterone cream was tried out in a study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, that included 150 post-menopausal breast cancer survivors. Half received the testosterone cream and the other half a placebo. The study found that there was no statistical difference in libido between the testosterone cream and placebo groups.

However, all women in the study did show some increase in sexual desire. What that means is that just thinking it might work made some women more horny -- this is known as the placebo effect.

Tags: breast, cancer, cream, drive, horny, libido, patients, postmenopausal, sex, testosterone, topical, women

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. URL for my newsletter:

http://jeffreydach.com/2007/05/05/jeffreydachdrdachtesto1.aspx

Jeffrey Dach MD

Posted at 5:55PM on Jun 14th 2007 by Jeffrey Dach

2. Does Testosterone Cause Prostate Cancer? See my newsletter for the answer.

Jeffrey Dach MD

Posted at 1:49PM on Jun 15th 2007 by Jeffrey Dach

3. As one of the 150 who was a participant in this study I have some comments.

On an Oprah TV program discussion, women who found testosterone useful for libido were using it directly on the clitoris, whereas the study I participated in prohibited the use of it on the genital area and the cream was applied specifically only areas such as the abdomen.

But what seems to go remarkably unnoticed here and was especially interesting to me is that the trial results indicate that, completely contrary to the overwhelming general medical community assumption, use of testosterone by women who have had breast cancer did NOT result in an increased level of estrogen in this trial. Until now testosterone use by bc survivors was thought to be too risky because it would increase the level of estrogen through testosterone breakdown into estrogen.

The question of unopposed estrogen, or estrogen dominance, still is open as to whether finding the best hormonal balance for each individual would be key. Even if balancing hormones turns out to be true only for a subset of breast cancer survivors (such as those who are either hormone responsive or vice-versa), at least now we know testosterone does not pose a hazard by breaking down into more estrogen.

Also, there is a real possibility that use of testosterone in breast cancer survivors might be helpful in terms of libido in conjunction with other substances now being tested in clinical trial. So to ME, as a breast cancer survivor dealing with the issue of libido, the info that testosterone does not appear to break down into estrogen is quite significant.

Posted at 5:57PM on Jul 1st 2007 by AlaskaAngel



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