Hormones and Sex Drive
As a Los Angeles endocrinologist who frequently treats women with hormonal disturbances, I am compelled to comment on a most peculiar column (“Whose Sex Drive Needs Fixing?” by Karen Engberg, Commentary, May 30).
The author, a family-practice physician in Santa Barbara, decried the use of testosterone to improve sexual function in menopausal women, charging that this practice is motivated by purely masculine criteria. She is troubled by a report that women complaining of reduced (rather than deficient) sexual desires described a marked improvement in their own sexual satisfaction, following hormonal therapy. She suggests that these efforts were fueled by their husbands, rather than themselves, and that men might want to consider reducing their own overweening libidos, to meet their partner’s lesser needs.
Taking the doctor’s comments at face value, I questioned several of my patients in whom the masculine hormone, testosterone, had been deficient, by female standards. I knew that their diminished libidos had undergone remarkable improvement, restoring them to the level of a previous norm, when treated with this hormone, which is normally present in women. These women insisted, with some humor, that women are normally quite sexual, and that their particular problems had been related to a drop in, rather than a lifelong lack of sex drive. Hormone therapy improved the sex lives, not only of their partners, but principally of themselves.
These responses are consistent with the reports of Barbara Sherwin of McGill University, a leader in the field who has reported not only an increase in sexuality, but in energy and a general feeling of well-being, when menopausal women are treated with testosterone, as an adjunct to estrogen.
Sexual activity is a pleasing biological function, as normal and as essential as eating one’s dinner. Noted for its anti-depressant influences, it is a tremendous source of tension release. In contrast, lifelong celibacy flies in the face of nature, and is the artificial, rationalized perversion of a natural biological urge. In a holistic sense, diminished libido is often just one of a constellation of abnormal symptoms indicating the possible presence of depression, and can be an indicator of postpartum depression.
It seems ironic that I, a male, should promulgate sexual equality, while Engberg, a female, using feminism as the Trojan horse for her bizarre agenda, proposes a medieval, “let’s all be miserable together” approach to female sexuality.
I have no knowledge of Dr. Engberg’s agenda. I am at a loss to understand where Dr. Engberg is coming from.
JOHN O’DEA MD
Los Angeles
* In response to Karen Engberg’s concerns about women being hormonally manipulated to keep pace with male sexual demands, I would like to offer another perspective. When disease, Lupron injections and surgery combined to pull the plug on my libido in my early 40s, not only my husband but I felt the loss. The ability to enjoy one’s sexuality is as important to a woman’s emotional well-being and sense of self as it is to her marriage. I am grateful that androgens have helped restore what I lost and that I can look forward to continued physical intimacy with my loving husband.
Many women who feel the stirrings of desire slipping away in menopause might choose a hormonal solution--even without pressure from men.
SANDY HOTCHKISS
Pasadena
