Female Viagra Still Stuck In Limbo Because No One Believes Women Physically Desire Sex

There are currently 24 different types of drugs that treat sexual dysfunction in men, and not a single one that treats it in women. Why? Because we have the feels! You basically need to change our whole brain chemistry to help us with sex. There is nothing physical about it for women! We need poems and candy and flowers – and possibly lobotomies. It’s just not as simple as it is for men.

Ugh. Shut up science. I am getting really sick of this shit. From Huffpost:

Sprout Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday it has reached an impasse with the Food and Drug Administration over its drug, flibanserin. The daily pill is designed to increase libido in women by acting on brain chemicals linked to mood and appetite.

The FDA questions whether the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, considering its “modest” effectiveness and side effects including fatigue, dizziness and nausea.

Do you know what some of the potential side effects of Viagra for men are?

bloody nose, diarrhea, difficult or labored breathing, flushing, headache, pain or tenderness around the eyes and cheekbones, redness of the skin, sneezing, stomach discomfort following meals, stuffy or runny nose, trouble sleeping, unusually warm skin…

There’s also mention of an erection that can last four or more hours in almost every side effect link I’ve read. Hmm. Yeah, we wouldn’t want to subject women to potential dizziness, fatigue and nausea – otherwise known as the first three months of pregnancy. Something tells me we could handle it.

Viagra works by increasing blood flow to the penis. Female orgasm happens with increased blood-flow to the clitoris. Can someone explain to me why we can scientifically formulate a pill that delivers blood flow to the penis and not the clitoris? What gives? Oh right, women don’t really like sex in the vagina. You have to screw our actual brains. So everyone is trying to think of ways to alter the state of the female brain instead of delivering some happy warmth to the vagina, like they do for men with Viagra.

But unlike sexual problems in men, most of women’s sexual issues are psychological, not physical. As a result, there are a number of alternate causes doctors must consider before diagnosing female sexual desire disorders, including relationship problems, hormone disorders, depression and mood issues caused by other medications.

Right. Men never experience relationship problems, depression and mood issues – so we can just go ahead and deliver the happy juice right to their genitals. Women need mood-altering drugs.

To be fair, Pfizer tested Viagra on women, hoping that the drug’s ability to increase blood flow to genitals would increase sex drive in women. It did create the outward signs of arousal in many women, but researchers concluded that “seems to have little effect on a woman’s willingness, or desire, to have sex.” This is a quote from Mitra Boolel, leader of Pfizer’s sex research team:

“There’s a disconnect in many women between genital changes and mental changes. This disconnect does not exist in men. Men consistently get erections in the presence of naked women and want to have sex. With women, things depend on a myriad of factors.”

Is anyone else disturbed by this massive generalization? They gave up and started testing all sorts of hormones and finally got to actually messing with our brain chemistry. But they can’t seem to approve something – even drugs that are showing positive results.

I can’t help but think we are all so brainwashed into believing women don’t actually want sex – that everyone automatically operates on that assumption – and is giving up.

“We’ve now got 24 drugs for men for either testosterone replacement or erectile dysfunction,” says Cindy Whitehead, Sprout’s chief operating officer. “Yet there are zero drugs for the most common form of sexual dysfunction in women.”

What gives?

(photo: Getty Images)