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Sexual function of women taking antihypertensive agents: a comparative study
R H Hodge1, M P Harward, M S West
1University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville.
Objective:
To develop a method to evaluate the effects of clonidine and prazosin on sexual function in hypertensive women.
Design:
Crossover, active-drug controlled pilot study.
Setting:
Community recruitment to a university-based teaching hospital.
Patients:
Ten premenopausal and eight postmenopausal women with mild hypertension and unimpaired sexual function.
Intervention:
Periodic, self-administered daily diaries assessed the sexual arousal and desire and orgasmic function of women receiving placebo, clonidine, and prazosin.
Measurements And Main Results:
Using analysis of variance for orgasmic characteristics and comparison of the percentages of yes responses to the sexual function questions, no significant difference in the levels of sexual function of women receiving placebo, clonidine, and prazosin was found. However, there was a suggestion that clonidine and prazosin affected some aspects of sexual function. Of the women who received clonidine first, fewer were receptive to partner approach during medication therapy (49%) than during placebo (61%). Fewer women wished for their partners to approach them (WISH) during therapy (41% and 53% for clonidine and prazosin, respectively) than during placebo (60%). In the group that received prazosin first, WISH was affected (32% for prazosin, 31% for clonidine, 45% for placebo). Orgasmic strength increased from 2.1 on placebo to 2.7 on clonidine (second medication), measured on a four-point Likert scale.
Conclusions:
This pilot study developed a method using self-administered daily diaries for evaluating the effects of antihypertensive agents on sexual function in hypertensive women. These potential effects need to be evaluated in larger studies.