Is vulvovaginal atrophy due to a lack of both estrogens and androgens?
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to review the preclinical data showing the role of both estrogens and androgens in the physiology of the vagina, and, most likely, in vulvovaginal atrophy of menopause. METHODS: Mass spectrometry-based assays (validated according to the FDA guidelines) for the measurement of sex steroids, their precursors, and metabolites were used. In addition to fixation of the vagina for morphological examination, histomorphometry, immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence, and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were performed. RESULTS: The vaginal epithelium of the animals receiving dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) was made of large multilayered columnar mucous cells showing distended cytoplasmic vacuoles representative of an androgenic effect. DHEA also stimulates collagen fiber compactness of the lamina propria (second layer)-an effect essentially due to an androgenic effect, whereas stimulation by DHEA of the muscularis in the third vaginal layer is approximately 70% due to the androgenic conversion of DHEA. Stimulation of the surface area of the nerve endings, on the contrary, is exclusively androgenic. Vaginal weight stimulation by DHEA is about 50% androgenic and 50% estrogenic. CONCLUSIONS: Practically all studies on the influence of steroid hormones in the vagina have focused on luminal epithelial cells. Since all estrogens and androgens in postmenopausal women are made intracellularly and derive from the conversion of circulating DHEA, it is of interest to observe from these preclinical data that DHEA exerts both estrogenic and androgenic activity in the three layers of the vagina, the stimulatory effect on nerve density being 100% androgenic. Taking vaginal weight as a global parameter, the stimulatory effect of DHEA in the rat vagina is about equally estrogenic and androgenic, thus illustrating the importance of androgens in vaginal morphology and function, and the likely importance of androgens in vulvovaginal atrophy of menopause.
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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 | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| 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".