Women and the Viagra Conundrum
March 9, 2009 No Comments
In the movie “The Matrix,” Morpheus (“Fish”) asks a bewildered Neo (Keanu Reeves) if he’ll choose the red pill, or the blue pill.
Women are apparently taking the latter.
Seems Viagra, a pill marketing to elderly men with erectile dysfunction, helps women with their libido. But let’s clarify: It helps women on antidepressants with their libido. Why the distinction?
Because women on antidepressants commonly experience a lack of sex drive, or just don’t want to do it.
Of course, Pfizer, who makes Viagra, has searched long and hard (no pun intended) for a female Viagra to add to its billions but the devil has been in the details. A main feature of the drug is that it blocks an enzyme that restrains blood flow, which, for men, is good because it lets more blood flow to the penis. In women, the drug increased engorgement of genital tissue, which meant that it got puffy “down there,” but didn’t add anything sexually.
In a 2008 study, 72% of depressed women taking Viagra, and 27% of depressed women taking a placebo, reported improvement in sexual arousal.
While Pfizer takes this as a win, they don’t seem to realize that the women they studied all had sexual problems not because they don’t necessarily like sex, but because they were on antidepressants.
Instead of trying to get the women off drugs they are content to add to their drug regimen. Go figure.
