Viagra for Women - Can it Solve
Women's Sexual Problems?
Roy Palmer March 2011
Expanding The Viagra Market To Include Women
Maryann Napoli Dec, 2010
Viagra Does Not Offer Women Relief Study, On
Viagra's Effect On Women With Sexual
Dysfunction
Steven A.
Kaplan April 2011
Viagra for Women - Can it Solve
Women's Sexual Problems?
Roy Palmer March 2011
Viagra. The little
blue pills that have transformed many men’s
sex lives overnight and entered popular
culture like a bolt of blue lightning.
However, men aren’t the only ones who can
become subject to sexual problems and much
research is underway to see if the potent
effects of Viagra can do wonders for women as
well. The results are in from the first study
to report and the bad news is that there seems
to be little or no benefit to help women with
sexual dysfunction.
The study was
performed at the Columbia Presbyterian Center
in New York where 33 postmenopausal women were
given Viagra 3 times a week for 12 weeks. The
women had all previously complained of some
form of sexual dysfunction ranging from
decreased arousal to an inability to reach
orgasm. Three women dropped out complaining of
discomfort and hypersensitivity and other side
effects included minor dizziness and
headaches.
About one
quarter of the women receiving the drug did
report some improvement in sexual function,
but this is the same percentage as the
percentage of men who reported an improvement
while taking a placebo (sugar pill). Thus, it
is believed that these women were responding
to the psychological effects of taking a pill
rather than the drug itself.
The conclusions of
the study were, "We found that there was no
significant change either in intercourse
satisfaction or in the degree of sexual desire
after the patients had taken Viagra for 12
weeks."
Viagra works in men
by increasing the effects of nitric oxide
produced in the body which in turn leads to an
increase in blood flow to the genitals. It was
theorized that in the same way Viagra should
work for women.
Summary:
The authors of the study acknowledge that
further research is necessary as their study
was performed in a relatively small group of
women who were examined for a relatively short
period of time. Pfizer, who manufacture the
drug are conducting their own studies in women
and the results are expected later this year.
However, so far it seems Viagra is not the
answer to the prayers of women with sexual
dysfunction.
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Imagine
increasing both the frequency and intensity of
your orgasms (improvement in both the strength
and frequency of the clitoral response,
enhanced sensitivity and arousal) to the point
were you actually entice your partner into the
bedroom (click here for details).
Expanding The Viagra Market To Include
Women
Maryann Napoli Dec,
2010
Now that the
impotence drug, Viagra, is such a financial
success, its manufacturer, Pfizer
Pharmaceutics, Inc., and other pharmaceutical
companies are looking to market similar drugs
to women. This was one of the unstated goals
of an international medical conference held in
October, sponsored by the Boston University
School of Medicine. The conference brought
together physicians, government regulators,
and industry executives to discuss the problem
of female sexual dysfunction and what can be
done about it. Of course, what can be done
about it just might be perpetual drug therapy.
The event was largely paid for with
"unrestricted educational grants" from Pfizer
and several other large pharmaceutical
companies.
Before the conference
even got off the ground, it received critical
coverage in The Los Angeles Times, Sojourner:
The Women's Forum, and the Boston Globe thanks
to a small group of women led by Leonore
Tiefer, PhD, which was concerned that women's
sexuality is being turned into a medical
problem by physicians, primarily urologists,
working with drug companies. Appropriate
avenues of research, they contend, will be
dictated by the requirements of the Food and
Drug Administration. The conference, entitled
"New Perspectives in the Management of Female
Sexual Dysfunction," was organized by Irwin
Goldstein, MD, urologist and erectile
dysfunction researcher at Boston University
School of Medicine. Urologists led the
research efforts on sexual response
difficulties in men, and they are now making
the transition to women, according to Dr.
Tiefer, who is a sex therapist and clinical
professor in the departments of psychiatry at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine and New
York University School of Medicine.
Urologists, like
other physicians, have little training in
human sexuality. They are surgeons who
specialize in diseases of the bladder, kidneys
and genitals. This could explain the numerous
conference presentations which Dr. Tiefer
describes as, "years of work with female
animals examining their clitoral and vaginal
arteries for signs of the same sort of
blockages urologists liked to claim caused
erection problems for men." She would like to
see a wider array of views represented at
future conferences that would include, for
example, sex therapists and psychologists. In
short, experts with social, psychological,
and/or cultural perspectives on sexuality.
Dr. Tiefer presented
a paper at the conference encouraging the
participants to be alert to "the insidious
dangers of commercialization of your research"
and "how the pressures of industry will
influence [your] epidemiological research so
as to expand the potential market for their
products." She advises fellow researchers to
look beyond the medical model with its minimal
physical listing (desire, arousal and orgasm)
drawn from Masters and Johnson and address the
equally essential elements like social class,
sexual orientation, religion, race, and
nationality. "Sexual satisfaction is very much
dependent on expectations," she said in a
telephone interview, and "expectations are
dependent on cultural realities."
The first preliminary
study on the effects of Viagra on women with
sexual dysfunction found the male impotence
drug provided little, if any, relief.
The study of 33
postmenopausal women was published in the
March issue of the medical journal Urology.
"We found
that there was no significant change either in
intercourse satisfaction or in the degree of
sexual desire after the patients had taken
Viagra for 12 weeks," said Steven A. Kaplan,
administrator of the Department of Urology and
director of neurology at the Columbia
Presbyterian Center at New York Presbyterian
Hospital.
Kaplan, who led the
research team, acknowledged Friday that the
study is not comprehensive because of the
small number of women evaluated and a
relatively short follow-up survey.
Since Viagra's
introduction in April 1998, more than 6
million prescriptions of the anti-impotence
pill have been have written, almost all to
men.
Pfizer Inc., the
manufacturer of the drug, is studying Viagra's
effect on women. The study is to be released
later this year, said Pfizer spokeswoman
Mariann Caprino.
"We can't comment on
the Columbia Presbyterian Center study because
we haven't analyzed it yet, but women's sexual
health is a rapidly evolving field and any
data is certainly helpful," she said.
Participants in the study had complained of
sexual dysfunction, ranging from decreased
arousal to inability to achieve orgasm.
Each was in a
monogamous relationship for at least 6 months
and took Viagra an average of three times each
week during the 12-week study. Three of the 33
women dropped out after reporting discomfort
and hypersensitivity. Other side effects
included minor dizziness and headaches.
back to
the top of the page
Imagine
increasing both the frequency and intensity of
your orgasms (improvement in both the strength
and frequency of the clitoral response,
enhanced sensitivity and arousal) to the point
were you actually entice your partner into the
bedroom (click here for details).
Viagra Does Not Offer Women Relief
Study, On Viagra's Effect On Women With Sexual
Dysfunction
Steven A.
Kaplan April 2011
The
first preliminary study on the effects of
Viagra on women with sexual dysfunction found
the male impotence drug provided little, if
any, relief.
The study of 33
postmenopausal women was published in the
March issue of the medical journal Urology.
"We found that there
was no significant change either in
intercourse satisfaction or in the degree of
sexual desire after the patients had taken
Viagra for 12 weeks," said Steven A. Kaplan,
administrator of the Department of Urology and
director of neurology at the Columbia
Presbyterian Center at New York Presbyterian
Hospital.
Kaplan, who led the
research team, acknowledged Friday that the
study is not comprehensive because of the
small number of women evaluated and a
relatively short follow-up survey.
Since Viagra's
introduction in April 1998, more than 6
million prescriptions of the anti-impotence
pill have been have written, almost all to
men.
Pfizer Inc., the
manufacturer of the drug, is studying Viagra's
effect on women. The study is to be released
later this year, said Pfizer spokeswoman
Mariann Caprino.
"We can't comment on
the Columbia Presbyterian Center study because
we haven't analyzed it yet, but women's sexual
health is a rapidly evolving field and any
data is certainly helpful," she said.
Participants in the
study had complained of sexual dysfunction,
ranging from decreased arousal to inability to
achieve orgasm.
Each was in a
monogamous relationship for at least 6 months
and took Viagra an average of three times each
week during the 12-week study. Three of the 33
women dropped out after reporting discomfort
and hypersensitivity. Other side effects
included minor dizziness and headaches.
Imagine
increasing both the frequency and intensity of
your orgasms (improvement in both the strength
and frequency of the clitoral response,
enhanced sensitivity and arousal) to the point
were you actually entice your partner into the
bedroom (click here for details).
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to the top of the page
