Androgens are a group of sex hormones that are typically associated with male development; however, all genetic sexes carry and produce androgens. Currently, there is insufficient research on the role androgens play in the sexual function of premenopausal women.

Latent profile analysis (LPA) is used to identify patterns within and between subgroups in a population using genetic data from blood samples. In a recent study, researchers hoped that LPA would be able to identify differently patterned sex steroid concentrations and female sexual function levels within and between women’s sexual arousal and desire.

Study Overview

To test this, researchers analyzed blood samples from 588 premenopausal Australian women (18-39 years old). Participants were asked to complete a survey alongside their blood sample donation including demographic information, medical history, and the Profile of Female Sexual Function (PFSF). The PFSF asks specific questions in the areas of sexual desire and arousal pertaining to the past 30 days.  

Findings and Interpretation of Data

Blood analysis identified three classes based on sex steroid-arousal associations:

• Class 1 (High Arousal): Higher PFSF scores, moderate androgen levels.
• Class 2 (Low Arousal): Lower PFSF scores, similar androgen levels to Class 1.
• Class 3 (Medium Arousal): Intermediate PFSF scores, but the highest androgen concentrations. 

Surprisingly, women in the medium arousal group had the highest androgen levels,  while high and low arousal groups had the lowest androgen levels. There was no difference in androgen levels between the high and low sexual function. Researchers believe the similarity in concentration levels between classes 1 and 2 may have to do with varying characteristics which may allow each group of women to experience arousal differently regardless of androgens.

There was a difference in androgen concentrations when compared to sexual arousal responses, but not when compared to desire responses. This may be due to the design of the PFSF questionnaire itself, in that a person could attribute scores differently between arousal and desire.  For example, you might not always experience desire, but in sexual encounters you might always be easily aroused. Therefore, researchers have suggested that women in class 1 may not have scored as high on the sexual desire part of PFSF than the arousal part, which could skew results.

Conclusion

Overall, there appears to be a difference in androgen concentrations as they pertain to sexual arousal in premenopausal women’s sexual functioning. These differences are most prominent between the medium arousal group (higher), and the high and low arousal groups (lower).

Despite these conclusions, the number of limitations and lack of variance in results lead researchers to believe that this method of diagnosing premenopausal female sexual functioning should not be relied upon. Instead, healthcare providers should defer to existing practice methods until further research is conducted.

References:

• What are androgens?. Cleveland Clinic. (2024, December 12). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22002-androgens
• Werner, M. A., Van Lissa, C. J., Both, S., Skiba, M. A., Bell, R. J., & Davis, S. R. (2025). Profiles of testosterone and pre-androgens and sexual function in premenopausal women. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 22(3), 424–431. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsxmed/qdae195