Hormone DHEA Helps Some Women Feel Better, Enjoy Sex
Sept. 29, 1999 (Seattle) -- A hormone called DHEA plays an important role in women's sexuality and sense of well-being, according to a study in the Sept. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. But at least one doctor who was not involved in the study warns that the results should not be interpreted as a green light to take the hormone without a doctor's supervision, even though it is readily available in health food stores and through suppliers on the Internet.
"Patients shouldn't be taking this cavalierly," says Owen Wolkowitz, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied DHEA. He tells WebMD that the hormone appears to help people whose bodies' don't produce enough of it. "But there are no studies on the long-term risks," he says.
DHEA, which stands for dehydroepiandrosterone, is used by the body to make the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, which can cause physical changes and promote certain cancers.
The new research comes from German scientists who studied a group of 24 women whose adrenal glands were no longer functioning properly. The adrenal glands are involved in the production of many hormones in the body, including DHEA and sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. The women were receiving the standard treatment for their condition, which includes taking several hormones that are normally produced by the adrenal gland, but not DHEA.
The researchers gave half of the women daily supplements of DHEA for four months, then administered a range of tests that measure mood and sexuality. They found that women who took the supplements were less likely than those who didn't to be depressed, anxious, or hostile, and more likely than the other women to have sexual thoughts and enjoy sex.
Based on the results, doctors should be giving DHEA to most women whose adrenal glands are no longer working properly, the researchers say. But they say it's not clear whether men with the same problem, or people with normal DHEA levels, would benefit from supplements.
Wolkowitz says the German study is the latest of several showing that DHEA can affect people's moods and ease depression. It's not clear, though, he says, whether DHEA is any better than the antidepressant drugs already used by physicians.
Hormone DHEA Helps Some Women Feel Better, Enjoy Sex
Sept. 29, 1999 (Seattle) -- A hormone called DHEA plays an important role in women's sexuality and sense of well-being, according to a study in the Sept. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. But at least one doctor who was not involved in the study warns that the results should not be interpreted as a green light to take the hormone without a doctor's supervision, even though it is readily available in health food stores and through suppliers on the Internet.
"Patients shouldn't be taking this cavalierly," says Owen Wolkowitz, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied DHEA. He tells WebMD that the hormone appears to help people whose bodies' don't produce enough of it. "But there are no studies on the long-term risks," he says.
DHEA, which stands for dehydroepiandrosterone, is used by the body to make the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, which can cause physical changes and promote certain cancers.
The new research comes from German scientists who studied a group of 24 women whose adrenal glands were no longer functioning properly. The adrenal glands are involved in the production of many hormones in the body, including DHEA and sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. The women were receiving the standard treatment for their condition, which includes taking several hormones that are normally produced by the adrenal gland, but not DHEA.
The researchers gave half of the women daily supplements of DHEA for four months, then administered a range of tests that measure mood and sexuality. They found that women who took the supplements were less likely than those who didn't to be depressed, anxious, or hostile, and more likely than the other women to have sexual thoughts and enjoy sex.
Based on the results, doctors should be giving DHEA to most women whose adrenal glands are no longer working properly, the researchers say. But they say it's not clear whether men with the same problem, or people with normal DHEA levels, would benefit from supplements.
Wolkowitz says the German study is the latest of several showing that DHEA can affect people's moods and ease depression. It's not clear, though, he says, whether DHEA is any better than the antidepressant drugs already used by physicians.
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