Grant: Operating Grant

Many women worry that they have too little sexual desire and some find this very distressing. Although men's sexual desire is related in part to the testosterone in their bodies, this has not been shown to be true for women. We have found in women who are distressed with a low sexual desire, lower levels of certain hormones that can produce testosterone. But these hormones have other actions as well, for instance they are also stress hormones. Additionally, they can affect our mood and tendency to be depressed. This study is to investigate stress hormones (measured in the saliva and nail clippings), and stresses that occurred in childhood including abuse or other negative experiences in women with and without low sexual desire. As well we will carefully measure symptoms of low mood, for example unhappy thoughts, feeling irritable or sad, in women with and without low desire problems. We will need to exclude women who have current depression. In conclusion, we want to understand the meaning of these lower hormones (like DHEA) in women with low sexual desire so that we can better focus our treatment.