Why Doctors Need Special Certification to Prescribe “Female Viagra”

>>In October, the “little pink pill” hit the market, giving women hope that our equivalent of Viagra had arrived. Finally, a solution for the millions of us that live with sexual dysfunction, chronically low libido, or other sexual disorders.

But while Viagra flew off the shelves in the 1990s, few women know about Addyi – which is manufactured by Sprout Pharmaceuticals in Raleigh – and even fewer can get their hands on it.

Under a safety plan imposed by the FDA, doctors must complete an online certification process in order to prescribe the medication. Pharmacies will also have to be certified.

The drug is only approved for women whose loss of sexual desire causes marked distress or interpersonal difficulty and is not the result of illness, relationship problems, or side effects of other medicines.

This seems like blatant sexism – a different set of standards – for medication that might help women. The same kind of sexism that caused the FDA to reject Addyi twice before. The same kind of sexism that spawned >>Even The Score , a campaign for women’s sexual-health equality, that lobbied the FDA for approval of the drug.

But is it sexism? Or is the drug really not that great? Maybe even dangerous?

Addyi carries a black box warning – the FDA’s most serious warning – stating that combining the pill with alcohol can cause dangerously low blood pressure and fainting. The drug has other side effects that aren’t much fun either; about 10% of patients in Sprout’s studies experienced dizziness, fatigue, and nausea. 

And it might not be that effective. >>The New York Times reported that in one trial, women who took the drug had an average of 4.4 “satisfying sexual experiences” a month, compared with 3.7 for women getting a placebo and 2.7 before the study began.

Women’s health issues and particularly women’s sexual health issues have not received the attention they deserve from the medical community. Yes, women’s sexual desire is complex and the causes are difficult to disentangle. But there should be greater attention focused on understanding this, on finding birth control methods that don’t impact women so negatively, and on improving women’s quality of life.

That’s where we need equality.