Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1430

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Leingang M.
Sexologist: Drug firms dupe women
Democrat and Chronicle 2003 Sep 25

Full text:

Pharmaceutical companies are racing to find the “female Viagra” – a drug to enhance the libidos of women who suffer from sexual dysfunction.

And why not? A much-cited 1999 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 43 percent of all women suffer from sexual dysfunction, compared with 31 percent of all men.

But critics, such as noted sexologist Leonore Tiefer, who is coming to Nazareth College next Wednesday, accuse drug companies of grossly misleading women into thinking that all of their problems – lack of desire, arousal and orgasm – can be solved with the help of a simple pill.

“It’s all product-driven, not health driven,” said Tiefer, an associate professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine and the author of several books on human sexuality.

Tiefer said dozens of products to alleviate female sexual dysfunction, including nasal sprays, body creams and even a remote-control device, are currently in clinical trials.

None of these products addresses the fact that for the vast majority of women, symptoms of sexual dysfunction are more psychologically driven than that of men and may simply be a normal response to the challenges of life: stress, isolation and overwork.

“But there’s a whole sexual health industry out there trying to peddle the idea that drugs are a simple and effective solution,” Tiefer said.

Drug companies, and even some physicians, have fired back at Tiefer.

“They say I’m trying to hold back scientific research and prevent women from getting help, but all I’m really doing is pointing out that you can’t always believe consumer advertising,” she said.

Pfizer Inc., which is testing Viagra in women, denies that it is trying to manufacture a disease to sell more products, said company spokesman Daniel Watts. Instead, Pfizer is studying a very real problem and trying to contribute to a better understanding of the condition, he said.

“The fact that men can get an erection by stimulating blood flow goes a long way in helping them overcome sexual dysfunction, but for women it’s much more complicated, and we acknowledge that,” Watts said.

“We believe, though, that Viagra will work for a certain subset of women.”