Female Viagra enhances libido, treats sexual disorder in women

By Sheilah Downey

A drug that was a let down as an antidepressant is proving to be a sexual stimulant for women, according to three clinical studies presented today in Lyon, France.

Researchers reported that the drug, flibanserin, enhances libido in women reporting low sexual desire. The trials, said scientists, were the first ever to test a therapy that works at the level of the brain to treat sexual disorder.

"It's essentially a Viagra-like drug for women in that diminished desire or libido is the most common feminine sexual problem, like erectile dysfunction is in men," said principal investigator Dr. John M. Thorp, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Thorp said that flibanserin was a "poor antidepressant," in trials, and that scientists did what they do best and observed other ways to sue the drug.

"Astute observers noted that it increased libido in laboratory animals and human subjects." he said. "So, we conducted multiple clinical trials and the women in our studies who took it for hypoactive sexual desire disorder reported significant improvements in sexual desire and satisfactory sexual experience."

Sexual desire disorder ranges from 9 percent to 26 percent of women, according to studies, with age and menopausal status factors. As flibanserin is an investigational drug, only women taking part in the trials can get their hands on it.

Results of the studies were given at the Congress of the European Society for Sexual Medicine in Lyon, France, and presented by principal investigator Dr. Elaine E. Jolly of the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Jolly, Thorp and colleagues pooled data from four clinical trials in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Nearly 2,000 pre-menopausal women ages 18 and older were randomly selected to receive flibanserin or placebo for 24 weeks.

Researchers concluded that 100 milligrams of flibanerin once a day was associated with improvements in the number of satisfying sexual events, sexual desire, reduction in distress associated with sexual dysfunction and sexual functioning in general.

"These results point to a novel approach to pharmacologic treatment of the sexual problem that plagues women the most and may over time prove to be an effective treatment without the side effects of androgen replacement therapy, which is the only treatment currently available."