Role of androgens in women's sexual dysfunction
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In Brief Objective: Although suspected, androgen deficit in women with sexual dysfunction has never been established. Given that serum testosterone levels are of limited value, we sought to compare total androgen activity in women with and without hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). Intracellular production in target tissues is the major source of testosterone in older women and can now be measured. Androgen metabolites, specifically androsterone glucuronide (ADT-G), reflect intracellular and ovarian sources of testosterone. Thus, we predicted significantly lowered levels of metabolites in women with sexual dysfunction. Methods: A detailed assessment of the sexual function of women without depression, without serious relationship discord, or receiving medications affecting sexual function included 121 women with HSDD and 124 sexually healthy community controls. Sexual function was assessed using structured interviews, validated questionnaires, and steroid analysis-mass spectrometry levels of ADT-G, testosterone, and precursor hormones. Results: No group differences in serum levels of testosterone or ADT-G were found. Significantly lower levels of two precursor hormones, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and androstene-3β,17β-diol, were found in women with sexual dysfunction (P = 0.006 and P = 0.020, respectively). The variability of metabolite and precursor levels was substantial for all women. Conclusions: Significantly lower levels of the two precursor steroids dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and androstene-3β,17β-diol but not the major androgen metabolite ADT-G were found in women with HSDD. Although the significance of the former awaits further study, androgen deficiency in women with HSDD was not confirmed. Given the unknown long-term effects of testosterone supplementation, women receiving testosterone therapy should be informed that a deficit of testosterone activity in women with HSDD has not been identified. Androgen metabolites, specifically androsterone glucuronide, reflect intracellular and ovarian sources of testosterone. In this study, it was predicted that women with sexual dysfunction had significantly lowered levels of metabolites. Significantly lower levels of two precursor steroids but not a major androgen metabolite were found in women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".