Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 44, Issue 4 305-319, Copyright © 1982 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The relation of plasma androgen levels to sexual behaviors and attitudes of women

H Persky, L Dreisbach, WR Miller, CP O'Brien, MA Khan, HI Lief, N Charney and D Strauss

Four androgens: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstenedione (A), testosterone (T), and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a variety of sexual behaviors and attitudes, and several moods were determined regularly in two groups of healthy, married women who differed by three decades in age. The younger women exhibited significantly higher levels of each androgen, the differences being almost entirely attributable to ovarian failure in the older group. Although the older women reported the same levels of sexual desire and sexual arousal as the younger women, their intercourse frequencies and self-rated sexual gratification scores were significantly lower than the values obtained for the younger wives. One or more of the androgen levels related significantly and in the expected direction to each stage of the four-stage sexual response process. Global measures of so-called "sexual adjustment" and estimates of anxiety, depression, and hostility feelings experienced by these women did not relate significantly to any of the four androgen levels.

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