Intravaginal 0.50% (6.5 mg) DHEA (prasterone) was administered daily for 12 weeks in postmenopausal women with VVA symptoms (n = 723, prasterone; n = 266, placebo) (ITT-S population) .

Eleven steroids were measured in serum at baseline and 12 weeks by validated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Serum DHEA and its ten derived steroids remained well within normal postmenopausal values.

At 12 weeks, serum estradiol was 19% below normal postmenopausal values while serum estrone sulfate, the best known marker of total estrogenic activity, was 5% below normal values (cITT-S population).

These combined steroid data further illustrate the mechanisms of intracrinology or the strictly intracellular sex steroid formation, action and inactivation following intravaginal DHEA.

Intravaginal DHEA exerts a strictly local activity without biologically significant systemic exposure, as developed by evolution for menopause.