Why the Pill for Female Sexual Dysfunction Isn’t Taking Off

 Why the Pill for Female Sexual Dysfunction Isn’t Taking Off

Sales are lackluster and criticism robust for Addyi, the “little pink pill” designed to boost women’s sexual desires. Why is that?To get more news about vigrx plus price, you can visit vigrxplus-original.com official website.

For starters, experts say women’s sexual pleasure doesn’t get much respect as a legitimate medical concern. According to the International Society for Sexual Medicine, about 10 percent of women across all age groups are affected by hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), a form of sexual dysfunction characterized by little to no desire for sexual activity.

So when Sprout Pharmaceuticals announced the release of Addyi (flibanserin) to treat HSDD, the implications and anticipation were huge.“There’s always been a big hope that there will be a pharmaceutical option for women who are struggling with sexual dysfunction, and specifically with low libido, and there was great interest in this as the potential [solution],” Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, an OB-GYN at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Healthline.

But it didn’t take long after Addyi hit the market in October for critics to question the highly anticipated “little pink pill.” A Bloomberg Business article underscored the drug’s initially low sales and doubted its worth, especially in light of concerns about its safety and efficacy.

Addyi continues to face scrutiny for falling short of market expectations. But some women’s health experts argue that it works as intended. It just isn’t the panacea that it was built up to be.
Don’t call Addyi the “female Viagra” in front of Dr. James Simon. The reproductive endocrinologist who was involved with early clinical trials for flibanserin has grown weary of the comparison between a medication that targets the central nervous system and one that bolsters blood flow to the penis.

“That comparison is highly detrimental and unfair” for many reasons, Simon told Healthline. The two drugs use completely different mechanisms to influence completely different body systems to address entirely different kinds of dysfunction. In other words, pitting Addyi against Viagra amounts to “apples and oranges,” according to Simon.

“It’s about unrealistic expectations based on Viagra that don’t really apply to women, to women’s sexual health, or to central nervous system drugs,” he said.

The biological differences between men and women dictate how treatments for sexual dysfunction work; meaning an Addyi versus Viagra matchup was never a fair fight.

Treatment of sexual dysfunction in women tends to focus more heavily on emotional factors that could be contributing to the issue, which is why antidepressants are often suggested as a treatment option. In fact, Addyi was first created as an antidepressant and redeveloped to specifically target HSDD.

“The emphasis is that female sexual function is complicated, and I would argue, more complicated, than in men,” said Schaffir, who was involved in early flibanserin trials before the drug was picked up by Sprout. “Erectile dysfunction is not only very common in men, but it’s a very measurable issue that people know right away if it’s working.”