WOMEN 'S HEALTH AND MENOPAUSE : - National Heart, Lung ...

TABLE 1–3 (continued)
Sexuality
• Improve understanding of the natural hormone changes that occur with aging and menopause, and of the roles of
endogenous estrogens and androgens in women’s sexuality.
• Develop standardized methods to measure libido in women.
• Better define the determinants of sexual health, including sexual desire and arousal, in postmenopausal women.
• Increase knowledge about the effects of medications on female sexuality in postmenopause, including the role of
therapeutic hormonal and nonhormonal agents in the treatment of sexual dysfunction.
• Improve the transmission of information to postmenopausal women about sexual health.
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease
• Conduct urgently needed randomized controlled clinical trials to investigate the potential benefits and risks of
different hormone preparations in women with and without prior CHD.
• Investigate low dosages of oral estrogen, nonoral preparations, SERMs, and androgens in randomized trials with
clinical outcomes.
• Except for asthma, very little data exist on the effect of menopause or HRT on the respiratory system, and
investigation of the effects on important disease entities should be considered.
Osteoporosis and Oral Bone Loss: Risks and Therapy
• Develop noninvasive tools to measure bone quality or bone strength inexpensively.
• Develop pharmacologic agents that will stimulate bone formation and restore lost bone. All currently approved
drugs are antiresorptive.
• Develop new pharmacologic agents for osteoporosis that are bone-specific and that can be used indefinitely.
• Improve knowledge of the association between oral bone and the rest of the skeleton, in particular as related to
therapeutic benefit.
Gynecologic and Urinary Aspects
• Obtain additional data on the determinants of endometrial function and the specific effects of ovarian hormones
on skin and different urogenital mucosae.
• Develop new ERα and ERβ agonists and antagonists as well as new progestins.
• Develop sensitive methods for early diagnosis at the molecular level of estrogen defects in various tissues.
• Develop noninvasive methods of endometrial testing.
• Improve knowledge of the relationship between HRT and the pelvic floor, including UI.
• Develop reliable, easy-to-use diagnostic indexes for pelvic floor and urinary syndromes.
• Develop new pharmacologic agents for the treatment of UI.
• Design clinical trials to properly assess the relationship between SERMs and pelvic organ prolapse.
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