The world’s first testosterone patch for menopausal women may soon be available in the UK and could “relieve women of needless suffering”.
According to the British scientist who developed the treatment, the potential to improve quality of life by helping to treat loss of sex drive is “tremendous.”
Clinical trials will begin in a few months and if the product is approved for use, the UK will be the first country to introduce the patch.
Testosterone is the main sex hormone in men, but it is also an important hormone in women, and its production declines sharply after menopause. Before menopause, women produce three to four times more testosterone than estrogen, one of the main female sex hormones.
Testosterone is produced in women in the ovaries and adrenal glands and is associated with sexual arousal and libido.
While hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches with estrogen and progesterone are common, there is no testosterone equivalent for women experiencing unwanted menopausal symptoms.
Family physicians may prescribe treatments that are designed and approved for men, but their benefits are controversial, and some physicians are reluctant to offer them to female patients. In some cases, women resorted to irregular doses of gels approved for use only in men.
That may change soon as clinical trials of the testosterone replacement patch are expected to begin in the fall.
British pharmaceutical company Medherant, where the researchers developed the patches, said it had raised nearly £3 million to fund the study.
Medherant founder David Huddleton, professor of chemistry at the University of Warwick, described the study as a “tremendous” achievement and said the patch could “save women from unnecessary suffering”.
“This is a very exciting development for us – the potential of this technology to improve the lives of women is huge,” said Professor Hadleton.
“The work we are doing is not only theoretical but also focuses on the issues that women face, which can drastically affect their daily lives and work.”
He added: “With already proven technology, we can use our new patch to eliminate unnecessary suffering from women’s daily lives. We hope this will make a difference in the lives of women struggling with postmenopausal issues, both nationally and globally.”
Since 2015, guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Quality Improvement (Nice) recommend that testosterone supplementation be considered for menopausal women with low sexual desire when HRT alone is ineffective.
The new patch aims to fill this gap in menopausal products by providing a treatment specifically for women that can be made widely available.
However, some menopause experts have cautioned when discussing the supposed benefits of testosterone.
Paula Briggs, president of the British Menopause Society (BMS), suggested that women’s safety is at risk due to “unregulated” advice about the hormone being circulated on social media and said the evidence supporting the benefits of testosterone for menopausal women is in currently not reliable enough. for the charity to change its recommendations for the use of the hormone.
Like Nice, BMS recommends only prescribing testosterone for low libido, after other options have been exhausted.
Ms Briggs said it is not “anti-testosterone” and that women are “unlikely to experience significant side effects at doses within the recommended range,” but the alleged benefits may be due to a placebo effect.
Nighat Arif, a general practitioner and women’s health specialist, attributed the lack of research on testosterone use in women to “medical misogyny.”
“Traditionally, testosterone has been considered a male hormone. It’s like women just want their sexuality back,” the doctor said. Arif I in a recent interview.
“It’s so much more… women just want to feel like themselves again.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.