Female Viagra?

Good news, ladies, the “Female Viagra” has been approved! Okay, so it has been rejected twice by the U.S. FDA since 2010, it has side effects, and you can’t take it simultaneously with birth control pills. But so what!

How can there be a female Viagra, you ask, when Viagra stimulates blood flow, and women’s readiness for sex is about so much more than blood flow? Well, this drug is not about promoting blood flow but altering the female brain. If that prospect scares you, you’re not alone.

Let’s digress a bit and talk about sexuality, shall we?

I’ve written about sex in this blog before. Many people have a rather rigid definition of sex, and as a result, the experience can be somewhat blah for women. This is one reason why women might not be raring to go. Fear of untimely or unwanted pregnancy can also cause a problem. A third possible reason is fatigue and/or distraction, especially if you have a family and a career. Fourth, many women are insecure about their appearance and therefore aren’t comfortable naked, even if they really love their partner. Similarly, some women have been conditioned to think that their vagina smells odd or is unattractive, and this can hinder their eagerness for sexual expression. Fifth, the experience of trauma in the past may continue to affect a woman’s emotional and/or physical comfort with sex. Sixth, some women have medical conditions that affect their ability to have sex. And the list goes on and on…

If only it were just about blood flow! It is, in part—and if that’s news to you, then there are a lot of things you should learn about and try before opting for that pill.

Since women’s sexuality is so complex, Flibanserin (a.k.a. Female Viagra) targets the brain chemistry to stimulate sexual desire. In fact, the drug was first studied as an antidepressant. Antidepressants themselves still spark debate, so using a variation of one to correct sexual dysfunction should be controversial.

We live a world where the answer to problems is often to try a drug. Pharmaceuticals are big business. So, is it any wonder that they would be desperate to get this drug on the market?

According to an NPR article, a woman almost lost her husband due to her lack of libido, even though they were growing closer as they got older. This anecdote gave me pause. In this hemisphere, we’ve been led to believe that sex is the barometer of a relationship, and that if it’s not meeting your expectations, you should seek it elsewhere. Few people talk about the fact that like all other aspects of a relationship, sex is a learning process, and it requires effort—worthwhile effort if you find someone with whom you share love and respect.

I’m an advocate of examining root causes, whatever the issue may be. I think a libido enhancing/mind altering drug should be the last resort.

Viagra appeared 15 years ago, blessing aging males with erections they hadn't seen in years, while this pill for women has only just been given the green light. So, one should reasonably expect it to be revolutionary, but it doesn’t seem to be. Apparently, the researchers determined that the subjects’ desire increased by 53%, decreased their distress by 29%, and doubled their number of “satisfying sexual events.” I don’t know how these things were measured or what exactly constitutes a “satisfying sexual event.”

It appears that the jury is still out on whether Flibanserin is really beneficial, and which women will derive its benefits. Maybe we should shift the focus from the lab to the self, and then determine what makes our relationships meaningful, and work on that.