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Melbourne, Nov. 7 (PTI): Elderly women can enhance their sexual pleasure with a stomach patch loaded with the male hormone testosterone, according to an Australian-led study.

Testosterone is the only agent that is known to enhance desire and arousal in females, with results from a new international trial suggesting the benefits in the bedroom are “very substantial”.

Sexual health experts have described the findings as a gift for post-menopausal women who worry to keep their sex drive going.

“For a lot of women, the flower of their sexual career is often in their post-menopausal years when they’re no longer busy with work and have met the man they want to be with, and this may be just what they need,” Basil Donovan of Sydney University was quoted as saying in a report here today.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 814 post-menopausal women worldwide who were given either the male hormone or a dummy patch which is stuck to the stomach and changed twice weekly.

Women enjoyed half their sexual encounters before the study, lead investigator Susan Davis of Monash University, said. “But afterwards, women who used the patch experienced twice the number of satisfactory events than women using a placebo patch,” she said, adding, “that’s an exciting development given no other agent has been found to help women.”

The patch was known to work alongside the female hormone oestrogen as part of hormone replacement therapy. “But HRT isn’t for everyone so it’s important to know it works alone too,” Davis said.

She said there was a “nervousness” among women in using a male hormone, but women actually have more testosterone than oestrogen in their blood at any given time.

The testosterone boost did bring masculinising side-effects however, with a modest increase in unwanted body hair but no change in voice pitch.

       Donovan said it was possible side-effects could worsen over time, but overall the results were promising.        ”I don't think they'll get the same market as (the male anti-impotence drug) Viagra, but it may help many long-term relationships,” Donovan said. Younger women who are androgen deficit may also benefit from the patch, he said.        Sex drive can also get a natural boost with general improvements to health through a better diet, more exercise, less alcohol and fewer life stresses, the study underlined. PTI NC