Dear All,

Many thanks for your great responses! Indeed @townieatheart is correct regarding testosterone. It is not a licensed treatment for this purpose in women and this is because it can be associated with side effects, it is not effective in all women, there is no consensus on montioring. Therefore we are in need for more effective and safe treatments.

Regarding not including during menopause transition, @notadoctor is absolutely right. To be able to demonstrate effectiveness we have to keep our group characteristics similar, and unfortuntately during post menopause the hormones do vary quite a lot.

We are hoping that in the future we will be able to test kisspeptin in more diverse groups. We have already published studies where kisspeptin has been effective in men and pre-menopausal women with low sexual desire.

If interested, feel free to contact us on Imperial.FemaleHSDD@nhs.net

Best wishes,

The Kisspeptin Research Team
Imperial College London

I’m not a doctor but my guess is that they need everyone to have the same base level - ie if you’re perimenopausal your hormones would be fluctuating and so it would hard to compare like with like and a sudden hormone surge may affect your libido, whereas they need to know it’s just the drug doing its stuff (or not as the case may be)

Testosterone is not always easy to get prescribed plus can have unwanted side effects. For me that included hair growth where the gel was applied, which reversed when I came off it thank goodness.
Personally I think it would be great to have another option.
Why only post menopausal women for the trial though? We know that peri menopause can be equally as difficult, can go on for years and low libido can hit during this time. I would happily take part in a trial if you’d open it up to peri menopausal women.

Testosterone is licenced for this purpose I believe?

Dear All,

Imperial College London is undertaking research in post-menopausal women. We are investigate the effects of a naturally occuring hormone, called kisspeptin, in post-menopausal women with low sexual desire. Unfortunately, low sexual desire in this group of women can be quite common and there are are no licensed, effective treatments to address this. Kisspeptin is a promising treatment.

Imperial College London is currently recruiting postmenopausal women over 40 years, who are at least one year past their last menstrual period and exhibit low sexual desire. The women are required to have undergone natural menopause, be on HRT (but not testosterone), and not on any anti-depressants.

The study findings will not only contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of kisspeptin in sexual desire among postmenopausal women but might also aid in the development of effective and safe treatments for the future.

The study consists of two study visits up to 4 hours each at Hammersmith hispital in London, during which the participant will receive either kisspeptin or placebo, followed by an MRI scan of the brain, answering some questionnaires, and having their body temperature measured. In total, participants will receive £200 for their time and contribution.

I have attached a poster containing information about the study.

If you think you might be eligible please contact Imperial.FemaleHSDD@nhs.net and we will send you more details and can arrange a call to discuss.

Many thanks for reading this post.