Salivary flow, testosterone, and femur bone mineral density in menopausal women with oral dryness feeling.

OBJECTIVES We compared salivary flow, serum and saliva testosterone, and femur bone mineral density (BMD) of menopausal women with or without xerostomia. STUDY DESIGN A case/control study was performed on 60 selected menopausal women with or without xerostomia. BMD and testosterone concentration were measured by a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry system and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, respectively. RESULTS Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that low saliva flow rate (odds ratio [OR] = 22.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.4, 96.8), low femur BMD (OR = 6.0, CI: 1.8, 20.0), high stimulated saliva testosterone (OR = 5.2, CI: 2.0, 18.9), high unstimulated saliva testosterone (OR = 3.8, 95% CI: 1.6, 12.3), and high serum testosterone (OR = 2.7, CI: 1.1, 7.2) were associated with an increased risk of xerostomia in menopausal women. CONCLUSIONS High serum and salivary testosterone and low femur BMD and saliva flow were associated with xerostomia. Of these factors, low salivary flow seems to be the most important element in the perception of dry mouth.