Testosterone Therapy in Women with Gynecological and
Sexual Disorders: A Triumph of Clinical Endocrinology from
1938 to 2008
Abdulmaged M. Traish, MBA, PhD,*† Robert J. Feeley, MA,† and Andre T. Guay, MD‡
*Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Boston, MA, USA; †Boston University School of
Medicine, Department of Urology, Boston, MA, USA; ‡Endocrinology, Lahey Clinic Northshore, Center for Sexual
Function, Peabody, MA, USA
DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.01121.x
testosterone therapy for women with various gynecological and sexual disorders has been practiced since the late 1930s.
Approximately 70 years ago, clinicians from various disciplines relied on personal experience and clinical
observations for outcome assessment of testosterone therapy in women. These early reports on testosterone use in
women with sexual medical problems served as a foundation for the development of contemporary approaches and
subsequent testosterone treatment regimens. Testosterone use was reported for sexual dysfunction, abnormal uterine
bleeding, dysmenorrhea, menopausal symptoms, chronic mastitis and lactation, and benign and malignant tumors of
the breast, uterus, and ovaries.
Health-care professionals engaged in the management of women’s health issues have observed the
benefits of androgen therapy throughout much of the 20th century. Despite this clinical use of testosterone in women
for more than seven decades, contemporary testosterone therapy in women is hotly debated, misunderstood, and
often misrepresented in the medical community.
One of the first studies in the late 1930's:
Endocrinology, Volume 24, Issue 3, 1 March 1939, Pages 347–350,
https://doi.org/10.1210/endo-24-3-347Mocquot and Moricard (12,) found that administration of testosterone
acetate modified and in general ameliorated the functional disorders follow
ing castration in women, but had no effect on the trophic vaginal disturb
ances; occasionally nervous instability occurred, but frequently a sensation
of euphoria. The amounts they gave were small (5 mg.) and the frequency
about every 7 to 14 days. It is our feeling that their failures were due to
insufficient dosage, the wonder being that they obtained good results at
all. Salmon (13) used testosterone propionate on a castrated woman and
noted relief of menopausal disturbances with a total dose of 400 mg. over a
period of 30 days.
We are reporting a series of 21 cases of female menopause, both natural
and artificial, treated by the exhibition of male sex hormone, in the form of
testosterone propionate in oil,1 administered by injection intramuscularly.
Since there is a close chemical relationship between the female and male sex
hormones, and because of the finding of both female and male sex hormone
in normal women, we believed it possible to obtain relief from symptoms of
menopause by means of male sex hormone. Animal experimentation has
shown the benefits of administration of male sex hormone to the castrate
female.
There is a definite place for male sex hormone (testosterone) in the
treatment of female menopause. It is possible to control the symptoms of
menopause by the weekly administration of 30 to 50 mg. of testosterone pro*
pionate.
Some names you might want to look up who made a significant contribution in this field and who extensively studied the effect of testosterone in women:
- Barbara Sherwin
- Udall J Salmon
- Robert B Greenblatt
- Samuel J Glass
- William H Masters
- Alfred A Loeser
- E Schleyer-Saunders
and, of course, John W. Studd.
There are hundreds of studies on the use of testosterone in women dating back to the mid-1930's.
