FDA to Review Female Sex Dysfunction Drug

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- A hysterectomy 11 years ago zapped Colleen Christensen's sexual desire. Now 55 years old and married for 33 years, Christensen said she used to worry that a lack of intimacy was draining the fun and closeness from her relationship.

Two and a half years ago she joined a clinical trial for Intrinsa, a testosterone patch made by Procter & Gamble Co. The effect was almost instantaneous. "Remember when you were young and you got this buzz and you looked at your husband and said 'Oh, baby?'" asked Christensen, a homemaker in Poulsbo, Wash.

On Thursday a U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee will review Intrinsa, which could be the first prescription medication to win approval for female sexual dysfunction.

P&G's interest in Intrinsa is easy to understand: Viagra, Pfizer Inc.'s impotency pill, and its two newer competitors, Cialis from Eli Lilly & Co. and Icos Corp., and Levitra from GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Bayer AG, will account for the bulk of an estimated $2.4 billion in worldwide sales this year for prescription drugs for male sexual dysfunction, according to market research firm Decision Resources.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-female-sexual-dysfunction,0,3267014.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines

[izzie]

1. Why not, they got all the men buying pills.

Get the other half buying. By the way, why is there so much fuss about ads in locker rooms when at 6 P.M. I see all these male sex problems ads on my TV?

[LynnTheDem]

2. There was no "scandal"; that was made up media hype

Notice it took until 2 days after the ad was shown before anyone said boo about it. Also notice Sheridan's raunchy tv series is most popular in red states.

Rightwingnut pundits aka "liberal media" just trying to make American sheeple see bush's non-existant man date.

[izzie]

3. Well I never saw the ad until they made the fuss.

I do see those other ads all the time and I just bet kids ask what they mean.

[sam sarrha]

4. Fuck the cure for cancer.. lets just screw....

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. I have mixed feelings about

these things. I worry about women feeling pressured to take such pills/patches by pharma convincing them there is something wrong with them when what they are experiencing is utterly normal.

As a woman moves through her reproductive years, her hormones go through sooo many changes in relation to her childbearing abilities/life stressors. These changes are perfectly normal, but I see the potential for another attempt to make something that is natural to a woman's health into a disease.

I think hormonal therapy for a woman in her reproductive years who is experiencing abnormally low levels of testosterone is very important.

BUT, I don't want some poor woman who has normal hormone levels and a sex drive that is natural to her feel she has to slap on a patch, convinced there is something wrong with her because she may not wants sex as often as her partner or what Cosmo tells her is "normal".

As a woman and a feminist, I worry about a message that says, "Hey gals, if you're not wanting to shag your brains out three times a day, there's something wrong with you honey and you need this little patch!"

This has the potential to be empowering for many woman, such a Colleen, but also turning in another tool to contol women's sexuality in not a positive way.

As an aside, some of the "fun" side effects of testosterone are permanent clitoral enlargement and hair growth. :)

[BiggJawn]

6. Absolutely ZILCH desire is "normal"?

Oh, nasty old patriarchal me...I guess expecting to have some fun ONCE a year when we're on vacation, or maybe New Years Eve *IS* too much to expect. Never mind hoping for MAYBE 20 times a year...

Don't mind me, I'm just an evil walking penis who doesn't need "help" fuming about the raw deal his partner got from menopause....
<grumble>