IS THERE such a thing as female sexual dysfunction? And if there is, should women be prescribed drugs to fix it? According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the answer to the first question is yes. And the answer to the second is maybe, but not yet.
On 2 December, a panel advising the FDA recommended that it reject an application by the drugs and healthcare products company Procter & Gamble to market a testosterone-laden skin patch called Intrinsa. The patch is designed to stimulate sexual arousal in women who have experienced early menopause as a result of a hysterectomy, and who are already taking oestrogen. The panel said more evidence was needed to understand the long-term effects on women of taking testosterone.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not arousal pills we need but a new kind of physical relations with each other鈥�
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But controversially, the panel was satisfied that Procter & Gamble鈥檚 clinical data established that the patch could treat female sexual dysfunction. While the pharmaceutical industry regularly quotes studies suggesting that more than 40 per cent of women suffer from this disorder, some people accuse the drug companies of fabricating the condition so that they can sell a female equivalent of Viagra (British Medical Journal, vol 326, p 45).
The critics also say the notion of female sexual dysfunction can make women who do not climax feel inadequate, when there may be more obvious explanations such as the nature of the relationship they are in. 鈥淲omen know how to have orgasms but do not feel free to express this during sex with men,鈥� feminist author Shere Hite argued last year (New Scientist, 25 January 2003, p 25). 鈥淚t鈥檚 not arousal pills we need, but a whole new kind of physical relations with each other.鈥�