Doctors Weigh In On Addyi, The New Women's Libido Pill

Experts are calling Addyi, the so-called "female Viagra" that's become the first-ever FDA-approved pill for hypoactive sexual desire disorder, a revolution for women’s sexual health.  "The approval of Addyi is the most important advancement in female sexual health since the Pill was approved in 1960,” said Sheryl Kingsberg, chief of behavioral medicine at MacDonald Women’s Hospital and a reproductive biology professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  "It validates women’s right to treatment for sexual problems and their right to sexual health,” Kingsberg continued. "It validates that there is as much biology as psychology with regard to women’s sexual function and this is the same for men." Addyi, or filbanserin, also known as the “little pink pill,” doesn’t work the same way that Viagra does in men. Instead of affecting blood flow to the genitals, as Viagra does, Addyi targets certain serotonin receptors in the central nervous system —  similar to how anti-depression medications target other receptors — in order to improve sexual desire. Before its approval Tuesday, there were no FDA-approved drugs that targeted low sexual desire in either men or women.  Kingsberg likened the FDA’s approval of Addyi to the breakthrough in men’s sexual health research when Viagra was first approved in 1998. Before then, doctors told m...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news