An international study lead by researchers in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Europe showed that testosterone could be the answer for some women with diminished sexual desire and satisfaction after menopause. The trial of Procter & Gamble's Intrinsa testosterone patches for women found that 300 micrograms per day increased the sexual episodes in the study subjects to 2.5 in a month after a 24-week treatment compared to 0.7 per month for those who did not received the treatment.

Before using the patches, the women in the study typically reported 2-1/2 satisfying sexual episodes per month. And volunteers getting the highest dose reported 2.1additional episodes per month.

The research placed 814 postmenopausal women with diminished sexual drives who were not on estrogen therapy into three groups. One group got a placebo while the other two wore patches with different levels of testosterone - one with 0.3 milligrams of the hormone and the other with half as much.

The test results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Most of it was mild, basically," said Susan Davis of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who led the study. "It doesn't seem to be an issue for the women. If it had been, you would have seen much greater withdrawals from the treatment groups."

Among the side effects of the experiment, four of the women taking testosterone were diagnosed with breast cancer, but researchers say this was probably a chance occurrence. Others acquired unwanted hair growth as a side effect. "Most of it was mild, basically," said Susan Davis. “It doesn't seem to be an issue for the women. If it had been, you would have seen much greater withdrawals from the treatment groups."