Monday, June 21, 2010

“Female Viagra” Sex Drug Not Yet Sexy Enough

“Female Viagra” Sex Drug Not Yet Sexy Enough
An alleged sexytime wonderpill meant to stimulate flagging or absent libido in women has sadly gotten the big no-no from an FDA panel. The drug -- flibanserin, brewed in the test kitchens of German pharmacorp Boehringer Ingelheim -- was proven to increase the frequency of "sexually satisfying events," but not to actually increase desire itself. This is a problem in the drug approval process, since the concoction must nominally treat an actual diagnosable problem, namely "female sexual desire disorder." Of course, the broader market will be women looking to get a little extra gas in the tank, much like Viagra was ostensibly marketed for treating erectile dysfunction, while finding wide use among dudes who wanted 100% concrete boners. Not that there's anything wrong with (any of) that.

Long-term use of flibanserin was shown to potentially cause “dizziness, nausea and fatigue,” risk factors which contributed to its disapproval by the FDA panel. Small potatoes compared to Viagra’s documented potential for, say, blindness and heart attacks. In addition to further study, flibanserin certainly needs a better name. The only other contenders to the female-Viagra throne are Intrinsa (boring and vague, like Cialis, sounds like it could also be a midsize coupe but is actually a testosterone patch) and Libigel (not a bad name, also testosterone but this time in gel form, and you rub it on your arm—not your ladyflower—like arm-marmalade apparently).

But are we setting the bar too high? Can’t we at least start with more of those sexually satisfying events, at least? But no. Female sexual desire is a complicated and beautiful thing, and resolving any issues therein will require a sophisticated, comprehensive chemical solution. As opposed to male sexual issues, which are, as far as Viagra is concerned, strictly mechanical.

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