Testosterone for female arousal?
For many years now, we’ve been professing that female sexuality originates in ‘her head’ and not in her sexual organs. Knowing that, we’ve been battling the popular belief that female sexual interest and arousal can be helped with hormones. Similarly, we strongly feel that finding a ‘magic pill’ for female sexual arousal is just a fantasy.
Often, we have been the lone salmon up the river; at other times, we were joined by a few enlightened fish…
A new study that just came out (citation not yet available but see below for references) strengthens our position: “While levels of testosterone and other reproductive hormones have some effect on menopausal women’s sex lives, their emotional health and quality of their relationships have a stronger influence, according to a new study.”
Excerpts:
- The links between hormone levels and sexual function were subtle.
- While levels of testosterone and other reproductive hormones were linked to women’s feelings of desire and frequency of masturbation, our large-scale study suggests psychosocial factors influence many aspects of sexual function.
- A woman’s emotional well-being and quality of her intimate relationship are tremendously important contributors to sexual health.
- Our findings suggest menopausal women who are dissatisfied with their sexual function should consider whether these non-hormonal factors are playing a role when discussing treatment with a qualified health care provider.
Although this research focuses on menopausal women, rest assured that its findings hold throughout the life cycles because the female sexual programming does not change with age.
John Randolph Jr., Journal of Endocrinology & Metabolism Nov 2014
