Women on the testosterone patch had sex about four times more than they usually did in two months compared to only one additional session for women given a fake patch containing no hormone, a study found.

Those who got real patches also reported more arousal, pleasure and orgasms, and had better self-images.

"We found an increase in activity, an increase in desire and a decrease in distress," said Dr. Robin Kroll, 카지노사이트 - http://www.espritwhisperingridge.com/ a Seattle gynecologist who reported results of the study Tuesday at a meeting of infertility specialists. The research was sponsored by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, which is developing the patch, called Intrinsa, with Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.

It was the first big test of the patch in women who went through menopause naturally and complained of low sex drive. A previous study in women who became menopausal because of surgery found similar results, and the companies already have asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to approve its use for those women.

"The testosterone patch looks very promising. It may be the answer for what women are looking for for a libido lag in menopause," said Dr. Marian Damewood, a University of Pennsylvania gynecologist who is president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

As many as 30 million American women will have gone through natural menopause by 2005 and another 10 million will be menopausal because of having their ovaries removed, Procter & Gamble estimates.

Lack of interest in or pleasure from sex is a big problem for such women, partly because of the decline in testosterone. Even though men make far more of this hormone than women, females still need a certain amount of it to have healthy sex lives, experts say.

Taking testosterone pills isn't advised because it can cause excessive hair growth, liver complications and other problems. Testosterone creams that are applied to the inner thigh are an option, but they've gotten little scientific study, Damewood said.

She had no role in the patch study, which involved 549 women in Seattle, Denver, Boston, Canada and Australia, averaging 54 years old, who were upset because they didn't feel like having sex. They were assigned to get either hormone or placebo patches. All kept logs of their sexual activities and filled out standard questionnaires about their feelings.

Those on the hormone patch - http://photobucket.com/images/hormone%20patch improved in all measures. Side effects were mild and reported by three out of four women in each group - mostly excess facial hair and red or irritated skin from the patch, Kroll said.

"None of those patients wanted to stop taking the testosterone," she added.

The experiment - https://www.behance.net/search?content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=... was done over six months, the longest period of time the patch has been tested.

Meanwhile, a survey of 2,000 American women sponsored by Procter & Gamble and done by the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey found that one in three naturally menopausal women reported lackluster sex lives, but only one in 10 said it upset them.

By Marilynn Marchione

"Today the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female," said Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS. "We will not be able to stop this epidemic unless we put women at the heart of the response to AIDS."

Trevor Neilson, executive director of the Global Business Coalition, said the business community's response to the AIDS crisis has been "tepid" — and it shouldn't be.

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"When HIV prevalence reaches above 10 percent in a country, the gross domestic product of that country drops dramatically, sometimes by 2-3 percent a year. This means economic devastation," Neilson told CBS News' Up To The Minute.

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From Armenia to Zambia, concerts, marches and memorial services were being held to keep up the pressure against HIV/AIDS. Some 45 million people worldwide are infected with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS.

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Much of the focus was on southern Africa, at the forefront of the pandemic, with speeches, marches and rallies.

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Nearly half the 39.4 million people infected with HIV worldwide are female. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said three-quarters of all HIV-positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa. About 57 percent of the adults with HIV are women, he said.

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"The number of women living with HIV is on the rise in every region. Today the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female," said Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS.

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The South African cricket team was showing its support for the fight against AIDS by wearing red ribbons — a symbol of the worldwide anti-AIDS movement — on their shirts during a match against India that was dedicated to the campaig

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Organizers of the cricket match were presenting red ribbons to spectators. Other events in India were organized to increase awareness of the diseas

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"As we all know, South Africa is among the worst afflicted countries and we all have a responsibility to do something about it," skipper Graeme Smith told the South African Press Association from Calcutta, Indi

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Zambians gathered for a candlelight memorial service in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the capital, Lusak

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the world shouldn't despair about helping Africa combat the diseas

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"Part of the problem is that I think people get fatigued and tired with looking at Africa because it all seems so hopeless," Blair told British Broadcasting Corp. radi

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"It isn't. There are things that can be done and there are real success stories

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In Beijing, China's official launch of the day featured the All China Women Federation and China Youth Leagu

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Criticized for 카지노사이트 - https://bestofblood.com/ its slow response to AIDS and for harassing health activists, the government also publicized efforts to slow the spread of the disease - http://www.britannica.com/search?query=disease among prostitutes and intravenous drug users — the two highest-risk groups in Chi

China says it has an estimated 840,000 people infected with the AIDS virus and 84,000 have the full-blown disease. UNAIDS has warned that the country could have as many as 10 million people infected by 2010 if it doesn't take urgent acti

In eastern Europe, where AIDS figures have jumped over the past decade, events in Armenia included a concert with well-known local artis

In Serbia-Montenegro, where the number of infected people has risen sharply since the country's isolation in the 1990s, the day's events included live, on-air radio and television programs to increase awareness of how the disease sprea

In Estonia, where 4,356 of the 1.4 million residents are HIV positive, the biggest event is a concert titled "Open Your Eyes," which will be held at the Kaarli Church, in the capital, Talli

Portugal, which has one of the highest rates of new AIDS infections in western Europe, opened the new headquarters of an association to support AIDS patients. Portuguese artists also donated works of art for an auction to raise mon

Danish observers were gathering in a downtown Copenhagen - http://www.gameinformer.com/search/searchresults.aspx?q=downtown%20Copen... square to light one candle for each of the 1,800 people who have died of AIDS in Denma

Piot was speaking at the United Nations' commemorative event hosted by actors Gloria Reuben and Alan Cumming at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, featuring singer Mary Wilson and South Africa's Sinikithemba Cho

"The number of women living with HIV is on the rise in every region," Piot said. "Prevention methods such as the ABC approach — Abstinence, Be faithful and use Condoms — are good, but not enough to protect women where gender inequality is perva

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"We must be able to ensure that women can choose marriage, to decide when and with whom they have sex and to successfully negotiate condom use."

LONDON -- More than with any other jihadist group in the past, ISIS has focused on drawing in new recruits from Muslim communities around the globe -- including in Western cities.

While the Taliban - http://www.speakingtree.in/search/Taliban in Asia and al Qaeda's various franchises across the Muslim world have concentrated on drawing in local and regional recruits, ISIS' much broader outreach has seemed to pay off. According to the CIA, the Sunni extremist group can count as many as 31,500 fighters among its ranks in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi mentioned "hijrah" (migration) more than once in his first public appearance, issuing a special call people from certain backgrounds to join the group; Muslim scholars, judges, people with military, administrative, and service expertise, as well as doctors and engineers.

More in The fight against ISIS

"In their minds, voluntary migration ensures that the society is religiously pure, but also politically loyal," explains Firas Abi Ali, head of Middle East and North Africa Country Risk and Forecasting at the global security consultancy IHS. "It is worth remembering that the original Muslim community built by Mohammed in Medina was based on a mix of immigrants and locals. The immigrants, who had adopted Islam earlier, played a role in teaching Islam to the locals."

Ali says ISIS is "probably consciously emulating" that historic example. He says their relative recruiting success is likely down to the fact that cash-flush ISIS -- which now calls itself simply "the Islamic State" after seizing a vast swath of territory spanning the Syria - Iraq border, "is better able to pay and equip fighters than most groups."

In addition, their victories on the battlefield "serve as 'proof', so to speak, of the correctness of its teaching and make it the most appealing group for a youth that feels that Islam needs to recover from a long series of historical defeats," says Ali.

"They have the most sophisticated and professional communication strategy I've seen," Ali tells CBS News. "The sense that the world is being forced to rally to stop them and push them back will probably help their recruiting in the future."

The recruitment process often begins on Twitter, or websites like ask.fm, where potential recruits anywhere in the world can make initial contact and ask basic questions about practical concerns, like travel and accommodation. According to experts, the conversation with prospective members quickly moves off those public forums to be conducted via Skype, e-mail, or smartphone messaging apps like Kik.

Questions for current ISIS members from potential recruits on Twitter and Ask.fm vary from: "Are borders getting tight?" (the answer: "It is still possible to get in") to issues around bringing spouses and whether it is possible to join the group if you have a disability.

The terror group's recruitment drive has become a major problem for Muslim leaders in the West, who find their communities targeted relentlessly by the slick propaganda churned out by media-savvy ISIS -- increasingly in English.

"It is scary no matter how you look at it," says Humera Khan, executive Director of Muflehun, a Washington D.C.-based Muslim community organization that works to prevent radicalization.

Her organization tries to counter ISIS' message by monitoring social media to understand the multi-step process of radicalization, and by organizing workshops for teenagers to explain the difference between recruitment material and legitimate online debate and information on the tenets of Islam and Islamic law.

Khan's organization is also setting up online safety workshops for parents, so they can help to protect their children from the long arms of Islamic radicals on the internet. The things to look out for, she says, "are the same as with the kids getting involved in gangs, drugs, or any of the social vices."

She says parents need to look out for any significant shift in their child's behavior; isolation, withdrawing from their usual activities, and or 카지노사이트 - https://www.zareraherbal.com/ suddenly looking for more privacy.

"If you see some shift, get help, don't ignore it," she says. "If they start hiding from you, saying, 'I went to this study group but I can't tell you what I talked about, that should be a red flag," says Khan.

She estimates that about 140 youth from the U.S. have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups, including ISIS. U.S. officials haven't given firm numbers, but intelligence agencies believe as many as a dozen Americans have joined ISIS alone.

The U.S. government is also trying its hand at counter-propaganda, seeking to prevent radicalization and recruitment before it takes root in young minds.

The State Department released a video on social media at the end of August with the opening line: "Run. Do not walk to ISIS land," followed by images from ISIS' own graphic videos showing the destruction of a mosque, and execution, beheading, and crucifixion of other Muslims. The video ends with the line: "Think again. Turn away," the name of the State Department's online counterpropaganda initiative.

The video clearly carries the U.S. State Department logo, so its effectiveness may be limited. But as Khan says, anything to help tip a young mind toward a decision in the right direction should be welcomed.

"From the prevention side, I can see how it might have an impact," she tells CBS News. "From the actual intervention side -- for someone who is already committed or interested and is going down the path -- then no."

"None of these messages are going to change the mind of someone who is already in Syria, and as far as I know, that's not the objective," she says.

Khan also says a clear strategy is needed to deal with those Americans who have been radicalized and traveled to the battlefield -- and it cannot be a one-size-fits all approach - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=approach,creativecommons .

"We need to have a way for people who are disillusioned, or who you can convince that what they are doing, is wrong for them to get out without thinking, 'if I leave now, if I go back to my home country I'm going to spend the rest of my life in jail,'" she says.

"If the alternative is to stay in Syria or in Iraq, versus spending the rest of your life in jail, it reduces the desire to come back home," says Khan. "We want to get them out of these environments. We want them not to be there. We need an exit ground."

CBS News' Clarissa Ward reported recently that as Western nations hastily bolster their laws to counter the threat posed by radicalized Westerners who might try and attack their homelands upon returning from Iraq or Syria, "it is important to consider what motivates these men to leave the battlefield, and to remember that they are in a unique position to deter other would-be jihadists who are considering travelling to Syria from doing so."

The Food and Drug Administration the federal agency responsible for ensuring drug safety, has come under intense scrutiny recently because of health risks linked to use of Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market; Celebrex, and now Aleve, which is sold over-the-counter.

Just over eight in 10 said they have confidence in the general safety of prescription drugs in this country, 카지노사이트 - http://vivadent.krd/ the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs found. Almost that many said they have confidence in the FDA.

But many of those people admit they have some worries.

Only about a third said they were "very confident" about the safety of prescription drugs in the United States and half said they were "somewhat confident."

Retiree Gabrielle Purvis says the barrage of news about possible drug problems is dizzying.

"You get so much instant information," said Purvis, who lives in Lottsburg, Va., near the Chesapeake Bay. "It's crazy. We end up with too much information that hasn't been properly analyzed."

The poll was taken after questions were raised last week about Celebrex, made by Pfizer Inc., and more than two months after Vioxx, made by Merck & Co., Inc., was withdrawn from the market. But the poll was taken before a study raised a possible heart attack-stroke link with naproxen, which is sold by Bayer AG over the counter - https://www.gov.uk/search?q=counter as Aleve.

About a fourth in the poll said they were "very confident" in the FDA's ability to ensure the safety of prescription drugs, with about half saying they were "somewhat confident."

Consumers of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications have been hit by reports of a steady stream of high-profile problems.

The popular arthritis drug Vioxx was pulled from the shelves by Merck on Sept. 30 because of evidence it increased the risk of heart attack and strokes.

Late last week, another popular pain reliever, Celebrex, was found to increase the risk of heart attack when taken in high doses. The manufacturer Pfizer has suspended advertising, but the pain reliever is still on the market.

Officials at the National Institutes of Health on Monday halted a study of naproxen, an over-the-counter pain reliever commonly sold under the brand name Aleve, because of possible links to heart attacks and strokes.

These reports — and questions about other prescription drugs in recent years — have led critics of the FDA to claim the agency approves drugs too quickly, doesn't follow up effectively on possible health effects and is too close to the drug companies

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In another high profile case, the FDA was criticized for not acting quickly enough to issue warnings that anti-depressant use by children could increase suicidal thoughts and behavior

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White House chief of staff Andy Card defended the FDA last weekend, saying it does "a spectacular job.

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But some people say they've grown suspicious of the drug approval process

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"Corporate people are cutting corners for the profit," said Mike Powell, a manufacturing engineer from Houston

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Many Americans have a strong personal interest in prescription drug safety, given that three-fourths of those polled said they had taken a prescription drug in the last year

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Of those prescription drug users, just over six in 10 said they have talked with a doctor about possible side effects of a new prescription drug. Men were more likely than women to have discussed possible side effects with their doctors

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Sean Malroy, a 34-year-old composer from Los Angeles, said he asks the doctor for more information about prescriptions, but often doesn't read the accompanying pamphlets "unless I have further questions.

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Most in the poll, 85 percent, said they read at least some of the information in the drug pamphlets. Women were more likely than men to read those pamphlets

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"I'm a chemist so I'm curious about this stuff," said retiree Lynn TenKate of the Chicago suburbs. "You have to take responsibility for knowing, because it's your body.

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Only one in six people who took prescription drugs of any kind in the last year, 14 percent, said they have asked their doctor or pharmacist to re-examine the drugs they were taking since Vioxx was taken off the market in late September and other drugs have been questioned

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Among those who used Vioxx, Celebrex or Bextra — all painkillers known as cox-2 inhibitors — a third have asked their doctor or pharmacist to reassess the prescription drugs they are taki

While the FDA opposes importation of drugs because of safety concerns, two-thirds of Americans favor allowing importation of such drugs "from Canada and other countries," because those drugs are often less expensi

1. Overall, how confident are you in the safety of prescription drugs sold in the United States? Would you say you are very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confide

Very confident, 36 perc

Somewhat confident, 48 perc

Not too confident, 10 perc

Not at all confident, 5 perc

Not sure, 1 perc

2. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety of prescription drugs in the United States. How confident are you in the ability of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure the safety of prescription drugs sold in the United States? Would you say you are very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confide

Very confident, 27 perc

Somewhat confident, 50 perc

Not too confident, 16 perc

Not at all confident, 7 perc

3. At any time in the past year, did you take any drugs that were prescribed for you by a doctor, or n

Yes, 74 perc

No, 26 perc

Questions 4-8 asked only of those who have taken prescription drugs in the past yea

4. Thinking of the most recent time you started taking a prescription drug that you hadn't taken before, did you and your doctor discuss the risks or side effects of the drug, or n

Yes, 62 perc

No, 36 perc

Not sure, 2 perc

5. And did you and your pharmacist discuss the risks or side effects of the drug, or n

Yes, 46 perc

No, 54 perc

Not sure, 1 perc

6. And did you read any information pamphlets that came with the drug, or n

Yes, 85 perc

No, 14 perc

Not sure, 1 perc

7. As you may know, the painkiller Vioxx was recently withdrawn from the market because it was associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, and questions have been raised about other drugs on the market. Since these steps were taken, have you asked a doctor or pharmacist to reassess the drugs being prescribed to you or n

Yes, 14 perc

No, 86 perc

8. Please tell me whether you have used any of the following prescription painkillers at any time in the past ye

Celebrex: Yes, 11 percent; No, 89 perce

Bextra: Yes, 5 percent; No, 95 perc

Vioxx: Yes, 10 percent; 90 perc

Asked of all adults, with results from a February poll in parenthas

9. Some want the federal government to make it easier for people to buy prescription drugs from Canada or other countries at low cost. Others oppose that, arguing that the safety of prescription drugs cannot be assured. Do you favor or oppose making it easier for people to buy prescription drugs from other countri

Favor, 68 percent (

Oppose, 27 percent (

Not sure, 5 percent (3)