14 DAY TRIAL // Viagra, the anti-impotence drug that - for ten years now - has been helping men who have lost their sex drive, will become this week available for women on the NHS (National Health Service).
A pharmaceutical patch named Intrinsa is designed to boost women's libido.
The female Viagra is now all set to boom the sex lives of women and Intrinsa is the first of about 20 female sex drugs under development. The drug works by stimulating thoughts about sex (libido), in contrast to the more mechanical effects on the blood vessels provoked by Viagra.
In trials, hundreds of women using the patch felt inclined to have sex more frequently and increased the amount of sexual activity they experienced.
The egg-sized patch functions by releasing testosterone, the male sex hormone (which occurs also naturally in women too, secreted by the ovaries and the adrenal gland), through the skin into the bloodstream. It is located just below the navel and replaced twice weekly.
Successful results occurred in menopausal women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (low libido) connected to psychological distress. The drug worked on women experiencing libido loss after a hysterectomy.
The makers avoided the pill variant, which would have released a too high dose, to avoid the side effects of testosterone, like excessive body hair, and liver disorders.
Unlike Viagra, the patch does not work in a second; it takes weeks to manifest.
The drug will initially only be obtainable on prescription for post-menopausal women diagnosed with sexual problems, but later it could turn into a "lifestyle" drug, employed by younger women without sexual problems, but who still want to boost their libido.
The female Viagra has been well received by doctors and counselors. "At last women will have something for the weekend. This is the first medication that is going to have an effect on women's libido," said Phillip Hodson, a counsellor and author of How to Make Great Love to a Woman.
"There are some women who say they are no longer interested in sex then you find their testosterone levels are extremely low. Those women will probably experience the reconstruction of their sex lives."
But the drug will not solve emotional issues. "If you are not interested in sex because your husband is a foul beast, Intrinsa isn't going to change that," said Hodson.
Intrinsa works on a completely different principle to Viagra as women's sex problems root on social, phsychological and emotional factor, while men's difficulties are physical. But one drug cannot treat four different issues like desire, arousal, achieving orgasm and genital pain.