“This is a fabulous, fabulous day,” said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, president of the San Diego-based Institute for Sexual Medicine. “8-18-2015: A nuclear bomb has exploded in women’s sexual health.”
He’s referring, of course, to the Food and Drug Administration’s spanking-new approval of Addyi, a new drug that’s actually the first sanctioned treatment for women’s sexual dysfunction.
This so-called “pink Viagra” pill, developed by North Carolina-based Sprout Pharmaceuticals, was recommended 18 to 6 in June by an expert advisory committee. Yet the drug’s been rife with controversy. Critics call Addyi a “mediocre aphrodisiac” with a laundry list of side effects. Proponents are happy to finally have an approved treatment for decreased libido among women, and called any qualms in approving the drug as “gender biased.”
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“The controversy is almost irrelevant, because it has been approved as a safe and efficacious drug by the FDA,” Goldstein said.
“In the future, there will be further recognized therapies. This will open the doors for a lot of research, conversation and discussion,” he said. “Instead of being a hidden thing, women’s sexual health will become an open thing.”
He concedes that it won’t work for everyone – but most drugs don’t. Decreased libido among women is symptomatic of any number of issues – including depression, arthritis, hormones, relationship issuer or simply taking other medications. Addyi will work best for women who have excess inhibitory chemicals in the brain, and inadequate excitatory chemicals, Goldstein said.
“If you have a broken leg, a broken toe or a broken libido, you can now go to a doctor and get help,” he says. It’s a matter of having a medication to treat a symptom – just as Tylenol might treat a headache.
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Besides, as Goldstein points out, “anything that helps an individual’s sexual health and quality of life is a good thing – and it helps the other partner.” The fact remains that more women have sexual dysfunction than men, but to date they’ve never had a pharmacological option – until Addyi.
“We’ve had dozens and dozens of safe and effective drugs approved for men, but this is the first nonhormal therapy for women,” Goldstein said. “So remember this day.”
