the effect of herbal supplement of ginkgo biloba on attitudes toward menopausal women to sexual relations

the effect of herbal supplement of ginkgo biloba on attitudes toward menopausal women to sexual relations     amiri pebdani m [1] ,taavoni s [2] *,haghani h [3]     received: 23feb, 2013 accepted: 25apr, 2013    abstract  background & aims : sexual relations during menopause as well as reproductive period have particular importance. the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of herbal supplement of ginkgo biloba on the attitudes of menopausal women toward sexual relations .   materials &methods; : in this clinical trial 80 healthy female volunteers aged 60 – 50 years were enrolled. they were attending 3 health-care centers of tehran university of medical sciences (tums). the participants received gbe at a dose of 120–240 mg (n = 40) or placebo (n = 40) daily for 30 days. the instrument of the study was sabbatsberg sexual rating scale (ssrs) which part of it can subjectively evaluate the importance of sex before and after intervention. the results were analyzed by using fisher exact test, independent samples- t test, and mann-whitney test.   result : most of the subjects were in the 50 – 52 years group (45.2 %). menopause age was ≥ 50 (41.9%). after intervention, the importance of sex during the previous month had significant difference between the two groups of ginkgo biloba and placebo (p = 0.01). there was also a significant difference in the importance of sex compared to the results obtained in the previous years (p = 0.01).   conclusion: ginkgo biloba have the effect on different aspects of sexual functions of postmenopausal women, and it can improve their sexual relations. therefore menopause women can experience sexual pleasure just like the past, and they can understand the importance of maintaining sexual relations in menopause period.   keywords: ginkgo biloba, importance of sex, menopause     address: faculty of nursing and midwifery, tehran university of medical sciences,   tel: (+9821) 61054344   email: [email protected]   [1] msc in midwifery, faculty member, nursing and midwifery faculty, alborz university of medical sciences, iran.   [2] msc in midwifery, msc in medical education, nursing and midwifery faculty, tehran university of medical sciences. member of research institute for islamic & complementary medicine (ricm, tums), tehran, iran.(corresponding author)*  [3] phd student of biostatistics, statistics department, school of management and medical information & health sciences, tehran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran