Gender differences in hyposmic men and women

Abstract

We have studied olfaction in patients with smell loss (hyposmia) for many years.12–14 Some of these studies involved treatment with the oral phosphodiesterase inhibitor theophylline which improved smell function in over 50% of these patients.12,13 This improvement was demonstrated by both psychophysical techniques (olfactometry)12–14 and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of brain.15 Initial analysis of these olfactometry data did not demonstrate any obvious gender differences in smell function either before or after treatment.12–14 However, more detailed analysis of these data suggested that women improved their smell function with oral theophylline treatment more than did men but mainly at higher doses of the drug. Because of these post hoc analyses we re-evaluated these data to determine if differences in smell function between hyposmic men and women occurred after theophylline treatment and attempted to understand how these differences occurred.