In a race to be the first to market with a female version of Viagra-style medication, a German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, is pressuring the FDA to approve it’s new daily pill that promises to increase libido in women. The FDA is stalling, saying that the side affects of nausea and dizziness are worse than the problems it is trying to treat. And, that a women’s libido is complicated and no one knows how much emotions and psychology play into it. But, none-the-less, the company is trying to turn low sex drive in women into a widespread pathology.
Historically the medical community has loved to medicate womanhood. Depending on which study you read, one in six American women are currently on an SSRI (anti-depressant.) I guess that’s an advancement from traumatic surgical hysterectomies that women were once forced to endure to cure “hysteria.” And how about postpartum depression? It’s the darling diagnosis of our generation. Funny, affluent women with less pressure to work and mothers with extensive family support have lower rates of PPD. Now the drug companies are telling mothers, us exhausted caregivers/providers, that we have a sexual dysfunction???
According to the New York Times, there are questions about how pervasive low-sex-drive is in women. It is a bonafied diagnosis in the DSM-IV called hypoactive sexual desire disorder. And many of the studies mentioned in medical literature suggest that one in ten women suffer from the disorder. But the problem is this: Those studies have been financed by drug companies.
While the FDA weighs in, the German company is going ahead with a marketing campaign that includes a web site, a Twitter feed, a Discovery Channel documentary, and a publicity tour with Actress Lisa Rinna, a former Playboy model.
Here’s my two cents. To anyone who’s listening at the FDA or at home: We mothers do not need a pill to have a more active libido. Fly us to a resort. Give us room service. And stand back boys. Watch how fast our libidos come back!!!