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Women Alive
Testosterone for HerReprinted from Being Alive Long Beach The Women's Issue
Spring 2001 This article is part of TheBody.com's archive. Because it contains information that may no longer be accurate, this article should only be considered a historical document. Not a lot has been known about the effects of testosterone in HIV+ women in need of hormonal therapy. But the results of a new study, reported at the October 1999 national conference on women and AIDS in Los Angles, concluded that HIV+ women can benefit greatly from the use of a testosterone patch to help treat AIDS-related wasting and loss of menses (amenorrhea; loss of monthly periods).
According to Dr. Steven Grinspoon, a researcher at Harvard School of Medicine, HIV+ women who have wasting syndrome have lower than normal testosterone levels. In men, testosterone is produced by the testes; in women testosterone is produced by the adrenal glands (found on top of the kidneys). In this study, the HIV+ women with wasting who received daily low-dose testosterone patches for 12 weeks saw their weight increase by almost four pounds compared to no weight gain among women who received a placebo patch. Of great excitement was the fact that 5/6 of the women who stopped having their periods as a result of wasting saw their menstruation return while on testosterone therapy. While more information is definitely needed regarding the positive and negative effects of testosterone therapy in women, the news thus far is promising.
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Alive Spring 2001 contents page.
This article is part of TheBody.com's archive. Because it contains information that may no longer be accurate, this article should only be considered a historical document. This article was provided by Women Alive. It is a part of the publication Women Alive Newsletter.
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