A new guideline issued by the Endocrine Society states that healthy women should not be prescribed testosterone therapy.
The guidelines published were updated from 2006 recommendations to deal with new research about testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) therapy in women. The guidelines also addressed the advances in testosterone testing and measurement techniques.
"Although limited research suggests testosterone therapy in menopausal women may be linked to improved sexual function, there are too many unanswered questions to justify prescribing testosterone therapy to otherwise healthy women," said Margaret E. Wierman, MD, of the University of Colorado in Aurora, CO. She also is the Society's Vice President of Clinical Science and chair of the task force that authored the guideline, in the press release.
Wierman said that after the study team examined previous studies they found many women who had low testosterone levels measured by older or new techniques did not show any signs or symptoms of concern. "As a result, physicians cannot make a diagnosis of androgen deficiency in women."
Furthermore, the assessment of the use of DHEA therapy did not show significant benefit when prescribed to normal women or those with adrenal insufficiency because of which the task force did not recommend treatment of women with DHEA.
The researchers also teamed up with Centers for Disease Control and other groups to establish the Partnership for the Accurate Testing of Hormones (PATH) to address the need for better hormone testing.
The CPG has been also published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
