June 16, 2010

How about a pill to increase a woman's sex drive?

But the side effects are dizziness, nausea and fatigue! Do take into account that a nausea pill would be helpful for weight loss.

Anyway, the main issue here is what counts as sexual dysfunction in a female? And what comes first, the pill or the condition it's supposed to treat?
“This is really a classic case of disease branding,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s medical school who researches drug marketing and has studied the campaign. “The messages are aimed at medicalizing normal conditions, and also preying on the insecurity of both the clinician and the patient.”

39 comments:

Phil 314 said...

really a classic case of disease branding

Worked for Viagra, especially when those nasty insurance companies foot the bill

They may be screwing you but at least you're getting screwed

(A gynecology resident once said to me
dyspareunia is better than no pareunia at all)

traditionalguy said...

Sounds like the Global Warmists cabal has taken a new assignment and is selling snake oil dressed in scientist's lab coats and jargon with no reality needed. Is its generic name Spanish Fly?

MadisonMan said...

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

If this pill is approved, there'll be lots of advertising telling women that it is broken, just as there is for men and Viagra. Maybe the ads will include onion rings and carrots.

Wince said...

"How about a pill to increase a woman's sex drive?"

...a publicity tour by Lisa Rinna, a soap opera star and former Playboy model, who describes herself as someone who has suffered from a disorder that Boehringer refers to as a form of “female sexual dysfunction.”

Let me get back to you on that one.

Meade said...

How about a pill to increase a woman's sex drive?

garage mahal said...
Yes.

I say... no.

traditionalguy said...

So there is a Frigidity disease that new lovers cannot cure? Tiger calls it the Elin Syndrome. If only Tiger had known to ask his doctor for a prescription of this and not Ambien..

Anonymous said...

How about a pill that makes various women want to fuck me just tonight? Come on science. Make yourself useful for once.

traditionalguy said...

Meade wins the thread like he won everything else. Hooah Meade.

Bender said...

Well, Viagra doesn't really increase a man's sex drive, does it? It merely permits him to sexually perform when the equipment doesn't work the way it is supposed to.

The female counterpart to Viagra is just plain old KY jelly or estrogen pills.

Anonymous said...

Flexo -- I recommend Astroglide. Just be careful.

Meade said...

@ tradguy:

In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity
-Winston Churchill

a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...

I think when you stay at too global an argument about an issue you just find out where the commenter is at in his reflexive attitudes. We don't have the data as to how the complaint is defined and what the outcome of treatment is. The statement of the academic by itself might say more about what might be pc in 'high academic circles' than it says about anything else.

Bender said...

Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want an increase in sexual desire/drive.

The typical male has sexual thoughts and desires, what, a hundred times a day?

It actually gets to be fairly tiresome after a while. Not thinking about it or wanting it all the time would be a relief.

Bender said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

There already is a cure--Al Gore. If that chunk hunk could be pillified and dispensed to a mass market, no man would be safe walking the streets alone.

Fen said...

The female counterpart to Viagra

is Weed.

Adam said...

I believe the medical condition this could be used to treat is the seven-year itch.

garage mahal said...

Meade...
I say... no.

I say, why not? If it gave couples enjoyment they ordinarily wouldn't have....oh, you stick in the mud.

traditionalguy said...

If we men are really in charge like feminists say we are, then we should get this Rx added into all "Fortified" foods. It can also become the secret ingrediant in Coca-Cola and single handedly reverse declining birth rates as the women all become so lustful that they forget about their birth control.

Adam said...

I'm pretty sure that the Invisible Hand would offer versions fortified with contraceptives as well, TG.

Polynices said...

There's already a drug on the market that makes women horny but causes terrible nausea. It's called bromocriptine (or Parlodel) and you take it, amongst other things, for benign pituitary prolactinomas.

My wife had one and was thus infertile and was prescribed the stuff. It made her terribly sick to her stomach but also extremely horny. It worked on the adenoma, too -- this was 7 years ago and we now have a 4 and 6 year old.

kent said...

Anyway, the main issue here is what counts as sexual dysfunction in a female?

A booming recital of every known zip code, from memory...?

Just a wild, random stab on my part, obviously. No offense intended to any within the zippophile community.

Methadras said...

But the side effects are dizziness, nausea and fatigue!

This is circular dysfunction. It creates the very thing that you want to defeat in order for her not to have the very thing that creates the side effects.

wv = ungism

rhhardin said...

By acting on a woman’s brain, it takes a different approach...

A flower pill.

Hoosier Daddy said...

But the side effects are dizziness, nausea and fatigue!

So what? I hear that exuse all the time now.

Anonymous said...

No women commenters ?? Curious.
All the votes aren't in yet, boys.
Hold your britches.

KCFleming said...

The disparity between the sexes in the urge for la petite mort falls in the same category as why there are 8 buns and 10 hot dogs.

KCFleming said...

"The messages are aimed at medicalizing normal conditions"

Death is a normal condition.
So are aging, heart attacks, rashes, depression, constipation, and diabetes.

People want to feel better, or different. The only "medicalizing" has been of the regulatory requirements to meet those demands.

Roger J. said...

Count me in with Garage!

And to echo Pogo: life has a bad outcome; and as an epidemiologist, I will say with absolute certainty: 100 percent of those living will most assuredly die. To quote Mr Gray: the paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Ken B said...

I love to see Leftists denigrate and minimalize other people's problems and sufferings. Especially when it involves causually and sneeringly dismissing their express wish.

Anonymous said...

``A booming recital of every known zip code, from memory...?''


...as a form of "sexual dysfunction in a female" ? Please, Kent, don't leave us hanging. Tell us what REALLY happened.

kent said...

Please, Kent, don't leave us hanging. Tell us what REALLY happened.

All the films were destroyed in a warehouse fire, including the negatives. An unfortunate nighttime... accident on a lonely, twisting mountain road took care of the all-midget soccer team, as well as the several large steamer trunks filled with breakaway leather clown suits. On advice of legal counsel, this interview is now over.

Andi said...

Anyway, the main issue here is what counts as sexual dysfunction in a female

Gawd. If it's not our 'significant others' bitching about our frequency of 'putting out', it's CSI Miami telling us we should like sex in a public toilet stall. Now, the damn medical community is telling us we need a friggin pill to meet all those expectations and demands upon our sex drives.

Do you guys have any idea the amount of guilt and feelings of inadequacy young ladies go through? It's not until they mature and share their experiences with other more mature women that they learn... Hey! I'm normal!

Huge relief that is.

Joan said...

(A gynecology resident once said to me "dyspareunia is better than no pareunia at all")

Let me guess: the resident was male. Asshole.

There are a million reasons why a woman may want less sex than her partner. Some of them have a physical basis, like hormonal imbalance, or neurotransmitter deficiencies. Many of them have to do with what's going on in her life at the time. This little pill isn't going to get to the root of the problem -- and it is a problem if the woman thinks of it that way. But maybe she doesn't think it's a problem, in which case her partner needs to let her know that it is, so they can work together towards a solution. Maybe the proposed pill will help some people, but I really don't want to see advertising for it -- and I'd be thrilled if Viagra and Cialis quit advertising, too.

raf said...

The likely use for such will be by women trying to attract a mate who don't really want to engage sexually but who think putting out is a prerequisite in the man's mind. Sadly, they may be correct. Even more sadly, the strategy may work, in which case the aftermath may be deeply disappointing for both of them.

wv: cation. Just keeping positive.

bagoh20 said...

How do they get all that tequila in a little pill?

BTW, Viagra usually does increase a man's sex drive. It gives confidence, which is most of the problem with E.D. A confident man is a horny man.

shirley elizabeth said...

Dizziness, nausea, and fatigue?

Sounds like pregnancy.

Trooper York said...

They already have one. Isn't that what roofies are for?

Trooper York said...

At least that's what Ben Roethlisberger said on WFAN last night.