Love, Sex, and Pink Viagra
Ever heard of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD)? It’s a new “disease” distressing tens of thousands of (presumably straight) women. Estimates say that one in ten women are affected by this ailment, and it particularly touches those in long-term relationships. But wait … there’s a cure! An FDA advisory panel has just sanctioned the go-ahead for FDA approval later this summer for flibanserin, a drug that some are touting as the “pink Viagra.” Don’t women deserve the same attention to their sex lives that men get?
The equality argument has some appeal, and so I can see how it would be easy to get lured into this seemingly feminist line of thinking. Except as feminists, we need to think twice and do our homework. It’s worth noting that Even the Score, an organization dedicated to “sexual health equity” and a supporter of flibanserin, is in fact financially supported by the drug’s manufacturer, Sprout Pharmaceuticals. Hmmmm…….
Flibanserin isn’t the same as Viagra. Viagra is sildenafil, a drug that men take prior to sexual activity in order to achieve an erection. Flibanserin, by contrast, is a drug that women must take daily (!) that targets the central nervous system like an antidepressant and over time increases their sex drive. Though, truth be told, it only worked marginally better than a placebo in recent drug trials.
To say that women deserve equal treatment in what is essentially the needless medicalization of sex is absurd. I agree that women should enjoy sex as much as men, and I don’t doubt that many women would love to have that spark return to their relationships. But prescribing a potentially dangerous daily drug ignores the social and personal aspects of sexual desire, which might not lend itself to an easy pharmaceutical fix. As sex researchers Barbara Mintzes and Leonore Tiefer wisely point out, “If a woman is depressed, is going through tough times with her aging parents or has just had a baby and is sleep-deprived, she can easily feel less interested in sex than previously. If her partner is unsympathetic or pressures her, distress would be expected. Defining unequal interest in sex between partners as a female dysfunction is hardly a boon for women’s equality.”
Tellingly, people on both sides of the debate agree that flibanserin has potentially serious side effects that should not be discounted. It can cause low blood pressure, drowsiness, and fainting, and trials showed an increased risk of breast cancer tumors in mice.
And most disturbing: it shouldn’t be taken with hormonal birth control. That restriction eliminates most of the drug’s target audience! Nor should it be taken with alcohol. Seriously? We’re going to prescribe a drug that women should take daily and that they should not mix with birth control or alcohol in order to increase their sex drives? How about just forgetting the drug and prescribe a couple of glasses of wine instead? That’s probably a lot safer and just as effective in getting women in the mood.
I certainly don’t mean to dismiss women’s concerns over their diminishing sex drives; but the social and psychological contexts of sexual desire are far more complex than disease mongering and pill popping suggest.
Elizabeth Reis is a professor of gender and bioethics at the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. She is the author of Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex, which was recently published in a 2nd edition, and Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England. She is also the editor of American Sexual Histories: A Social and Cultural History Reader.
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1 thought on “Love, Sex, and Pink Viagra”
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They would make it a pink pill.
Leslie