A Deeper Look into Addyi (“Female Viagra”) and the Cause of Low Libido.

By now you have certainly heard of Addyi the pill – just approved by the F.D.A. -that promises to increase a woman’s sexual desire.

Initially, I was skeptical. In all my years, talking to friends, seeing clients in private practice, being, ya know, a human being, I have yet to encounter a single woman who struggles with her sexual desire just, well, “because.” In my experience, there is a vast wellspring of cause and effects, beyond a misfiring synapses, that leads to a cooling of lusty longing for one’s partner.

But, “No,” counters the (adorably named) Sprout Pharmeceuticals, creator of Addyi, the F.D.A. has approved this pill for the 10% of women who suffer from a lack of sexual desire that is unrelated to illness, relationship problems, or side effects from other medications. Cindy Whitehead, CEO of Sprout proudly states, “We applaud the FDA for putting the patient voice at the center of the conversation and for focusing on scientific evidence.” As long as women don’t mind the harmlessly pesky side effects like “like low blood pressure, fainting, nausea, dizziness and sleepiness,” Addyi seems like just the thing for waning sexual desire.

Hm, seems like a lot of side effects… As if on cue, Dr. Lauren Streicher, associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, adds to the discourse, stating that she “sensed great interest for a drug like Addyi among patients… the drug’s availability would encourage many women to talk to doctors about their sexual problems for the first time.” 

I felt uneasy. Was I, too, contributing to the stigma that keeps women from addressing their medical needs with their doctor?

I then read that women’s rights group, Even the Score, lobbied heavily for Addyi’s FDA approval. Even the Score accused the FDA of being biased, opting to approve drugs to help men’s sexual functioning but refusing equal rights to women. As part of their lobbying campaign, Even the Score declares, “We believe, as does the World Health Organization, that sex is a basic human right and it is time we had equity in medical treatment options for women’s sexual health.” 

Damn. Now, my skepticism was not only impeding medical health, but downright anti-feminist.

This is the point when the old, pre-psychoanalyzed me would’ve hung her head and admitted that I was the problem, that any doubts I had were clearly unfounded given evidence from medical professionals and women’s rights advocates. I would’ve set aside any thoughts about low libido being indicative of a complex set of bio-social-psychological factors and reluctantly conceded that, yes, maybe one’s lack of libido was simply a biological mechanism that could and should be solved easily by popping a pill (daily, for $400/month).

Fortunately for you, I am now capable of maintaining a thinking mind!

I did some research. Using a handy tool learned on The Colbert Report I decided to take a gander at Dr. Streicher’s record of accepting kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies. Turns out she’s received over 200K from Big Pharma between August of 2013 and December 2014. Sprout was not on this 2014 list, but I would not be surprised to see them featured when the 2015 numbers are released.

Oh, and Even the Score? It turns out, they too receive “support” from Sprout.

So, what does this all have to do with you and your sexual desire?

There is a link between your ability to trust your own mind, to think of yourself as sexy, and your level of sexual desire. Women barraged by the message that we need to be young, hot and horny, ready to drop our panties in order to please our husbands (within the confines of matrimony – heaven forbid you’re hot for another woman). When the sexually desirable woman portrayed in magazines and on billboards is barely of consenting age and likely suffering from an eating disorder, it is hard to maintain a sense of our own bodies – curvaceous or muscular, short or midlife – as sexually attractive.

Addyi, which I will now refer to by its actual name – flibanserin (far less cute)- is touted as the cure for women that are failing in their sexual performance because it is much more difficult to take a close look at a culture that has very rigid standards about what kinds of women are sexually pleasing to men, and how often these men should be pleased. These types of “cures” set a bar – and then advertise like mad – about how stimulated you ought to feel. Everyone who falls below this manufactured standard of “excellence” has suddenly become a failure. This is a very lucrative failure for Sprout.

Ironically, flibanserin (ew) has actually shown to have minimal impact on a woman’s sexual activity. Women who took the daily dose increased their incidence of sex by one time. Per month.

These results indicate that flibanserin is much less effective in increasing your dude’s sexual prowess or shifting public perceptions of female sexuality or helping you feel a sense of confidence about who you are, and much more effective at creating the illusion that you have a problem and then providing a solution which has massive impact on your pocket book.

You are a complicated, interesting, deep, awe-inspiring, powerful, confusing, delightful, challenging, gorgeous human. I encourage you to think twice when those commercials for flibanserin (*Addyi!*) begin showing up, replete with images of fulfilled women whose breasts are plumped and whose men are happy. Take a moment to imagine a different kind of commercial, where women are confident in who they are, the media portrays all bodies as sexual, and our men are busy scrawling notes, excited to take yet another course on women’s anatomy.