- The effectiveness of vitamin D as an alternative to FDA-approved treatment and other therapies for managing vulvovaginal atrophy and sexual inactivity in postmenopausal women. A systematic review and meta-analysis
- No details in abstract about dose size, type, or where it was applied
- VitaminDwiki used to pay about $1,000 a year rent or buy access to studies, but has been running low on funds
- VitaminDWiki – Topical Vitamin D category contains:
- 17+ VitaminDWiki pages have MENOPAUSAL in the title
- 6+ VitaminDWiki pages have SEXUAL in the title
The effectiveness of vitamin D as an alternative to FDA-approved treatment and other therapies for managing vulvovaginal atrophy and sexual inactivity in postmenopausal women. A systematic review and meta-analysis
Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2025 doi: 10.1002/ijgo.70011 Eman Youssef 1, Mostafa Saad Badie 2, Doaa Ismail 3, Aliaa Gamal 4, Hala Mohamed Eldamanhoury 5
Background: Vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) and sexual inactivity (SI) are prevalent among postmenopausal women (PMW). While hormonal therapies show significant improvement, non-hormonal therapies are considered the first-line for breast cancer women. However, vaginal hormonal therapies are unavailable in all countries, particularly developing countries such as the middle east, and there are no studies that have tested these therapies in women either with a history of breast cancer or those taking endocrine therapies for their cancer.
Objective: We conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin D (VD), whether alone or in combination with other therapies, in managing VVA and SI in PMW.
Search strategy: A systematic literature search was undertaken on four electronic databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus) from inception until June 2023.
Selection criteria: The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that used the vaginal maturation index (VMI) and vaginal pH to measure VVA and vaginal dryness and the female sexual function index (FSFI) to measure SI were included in the meta-analysis.
Main results: Eight RCTs (608 PMW) were included, and 222 were assigned to the VD arm. For the oral VD subgroup, there was no statistically significant improvement in the mean difference (MD) of VMI (MD -7.62, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -23.84, 8.59). However, VMI's topical VD subgroup was statistically significant (25.16; 95% CI: 18.74, 31.59).
For topical form, the total FSFI score (0.24; 95% CI: -1.72, 2.20) and all FSFI domains did not demonstrate statistically significant improvement except arousal (0.56; 95% CI: 0.12, 1.00). Vaginal pH's oral VD subgroup showed statistically significant improvement (-0.27, 95% CI: -0.50, -0.05) compared to the topical VD.
Topical VD subgroup (24.45; 95% CI: 7.14, 41.77) showed a statistically significant increase of vaginal superficial cells, in contrast to the oral VD subgroup (3.25; 95% CI: -5.44, 11.96).
Conclusion: Topical VD showed significant improvements in VMI and the arousal subscale of FSFI, whereas oral VD had no substantial improvement except in vaginal pH. VD alone is not a sufficient alternative to other available treatments, and further RCTs are needed to evaluate its effectiveness without any combination with other drugs.
No details in abstract about dose size, type, or where it was applied
Suspect Topical vitamin D was applied directly to the vagina,
Previous studies appear to have found that topical gets about 100X more vitamin D just under the skin than oral vitamin D
VitaminDwiki used to pay about $1,000 a year rent or buy access to studies, but has been running low on funds
VitaminDWiki – Topical Vitamin D category contains:
Topical is one of the many ways of increasing the vitamin D in your body
Topical is 2X to 50X more expensive than oral form
Topical is great for those who not want to swallow pillls nor fortifiy their food/drink with Vitamin D
Topical is one of the many gut-friendly forms of vitamin D (good bioavailability for those with poor guts
Topical is especially good form to apply directly to skin problems:
- i.e. Psoriasis Warts Burns Acne Eczema Wounds (lasts about a day)
The skin, like most tissues of the body, can fully-activate Vitamin D locally - no liver nor kidney needed.
Provides perhaps 100X higher concentration of Vitamin D to that portion than if same dose were taken orally
There were 98 topical Vitamin D products on Amazon Sept 2024 Creams, oils, patches, nanoemulsions, etc.
I prefer Nutrasal nanoemulsion form
Suspect that topical Vitamin D is best absorbed where the skin gets Vitamin D naturally
- - - face and hands vs the back or the inside of arms
Nanoemulsions can also be applied topically under the tongue and inhaled
17+ VitaminDWiki pages have MENOPAUSAL in the title
The list is automatically updated
6+ VitaminDWiki pages have SEXUAL in the title
The list is automatically updated