A Female Viagra?

One day, will you see drugs for the female libido advertised as heavily as Viagra? It’s possible.

The drug flibanserin was created as an antidepressant, but it doesn’t work so well for depression. However, the pooled results from three separate clinical trials revealed that the drug successfully treats women with low libido. But don’t ask your doc about it just yet. Right now, flibanserin is just an investigational drug for women in clinical trials.

In the studies, women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder reported significant improvements in sexual desire and satisfactory sexual experiences while taking flibanserin. “It’s essentially a Viagra-like drug for women in that diminished desire or libido is the most common feminine sexual problem, like erectile dysfunction is in men,” said John M. Thorp Jr., M.D., the principal investigator for North America in the studies.

These clinical trials are the first for a therapy that works at the brain’s level to enhance libido in women. The findings were presented today at the Congress of the European Society for Sexual Medicine in Lyon, France. The trials were funded by the manufacturer of flibanserin — Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is defined as a persistent lack of interest in sex that causes personal distress. It’s believed to affect between 9 and 26% of women in the US. Some studies say that more than 40% of women complain of low sexual desire at some point.

According to Mayo Clinic, there are many causes of low sexual desire in women. They include fatigue, medical diseases, sexual problems like pain during sex, surgery (related to breasts or genital tract), medications (blood pressure, chemotherapy, antidepressants, antihistamines), hormonal changes related to menopause or pregnancy, relationship issues and psychological causes like poor body image.

Do you think there’s a market for drugs that treat low sexual desire in women?

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