How Does "Female Viagra" Make You Feel?

Flibanserin, now known as Addyi and dubbed “female Viagra” was approved by the FDA on Tuesday. It's the only treatment for premenopausal women with acquired, generalized Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), low sexual desire that causes distress. So, what does "female viagra" do to your body? If your body is receptive to the hormone-free pill, it should make you feel great. After all, it is supposed to meet these three primary criterion: provide an increased higher number of satisfying sexual events, increase sexual desire, lower distress.

Who wouldn’t be happier with the above? On the one hand, it should do all the aforementioned. On the other, it may make you sleepy, more prone to fainting, and lower your blood pressure. “As doctors and patients, we deal with medications that cause those same things all the time,” says Dr. Brett Worly, MD, OB/GYN. “They’ll happen to a small proportion of people. Try it on a weekend, while not driving, with friends or family around. Side effects vary from one person to the next.”

However, if the pill (which needs to be taken daily at bedtime) works for you, it could be better than your life, pre-flibanserin, when suffering from Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). Up to one-third of women have this (one-third too many, I think!). After all, sex is good for you—it’s good for your heart, helps you sleep, reduces stress, and can even help prevent cancer.

Back in June, when an FDA advisory committee voted 18-6 that flibanserin be approved, Dr. Margery Gass, a sexual dysfunction expert at Cleveland Clinic, told CNN, "I am elated, very happy to hear this. I think women are going to be very appreciative of having something they can try for this problem." However, it’s not as simple as men popping a blue pill.

“Women don’t have a female Viagra,” says renowned media personality and internist Dr. Drew. “They are profoundly different issues — the brain (in women) versus blood vessels (in men). We’re not talking about arousal — we’re talking about libido… But each individual case has to be carefully evaluated.”

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