Male sexual dysfunction is pretty simple to diagnose, and we all know the name of that little blue pill men can take to give them a lift. Female sexual dysfunction, on the other hand, is largely shrouded in mystery, misogyny, and misinformation, but there's finally a campaign called Even The Score to get “female Viagra" approved by the Food and Drug Administration — and it just might pass this time around.
According to The New York Times, the drug flibanserin was rejected twice by the FDA because its side effects, which include dizziness, sleepiness, and nausea, were found to outweigh its benefits. Given that most approved drugs come with a novella-sized list of similar side effects, some have called sexism on their decisions. While the FDA denies these allegations, there's no doubt that female sexual health isn't a top priority in the US of A.
I'm personally wary of the pharmaceutical-industrial complex in this country, but if men can pop a boner pill, there should at least be a pharmaceutical option for women struggling with sexual health issues, too. Why should guys be the only ones who have chemical recourse for their sexual difficulties? Here are five reasons why flibanserin should be approved (and hopefully not forever referred to as "the female Viagra," thanks).
1. To encourage discussions about female sexual health
I don't know why it takes sexual dysfunction or hearings on abortion to talk about female sexual health, but in the immortal words of Tupac: that's just the way it is. Legalizing a pill to help with female sexual complications would go a long way to opening up a dialogue about female sexual health overall.
2. To confirm that sexual problems aren't just in our heads
Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego told The New York Times that it is biased to view men's sexual problems as simply physical, and women's as a complex blend of psychological and social issues. Sometimes sexual dysfunction isn't just "in our heads," and is actually based upon physical problems that can be treated with drugs.
3. So as much attention can be paid to female sexual dysfunction as it is to male sexual dysfunction
How many erectile dysfunction ads have you seen in the past year on TV? Yeah, I thought so. I'm sure it's devastating for dudes who can't get it up, but it's just as devastating for women who can't enjoy sex anymore, either. Let's get some gender equality up in here for once.
4. So female sexual dysfunction can be taken seriously
Women have been forced to deal with all kinds of whack medial diagnoses since the dawn of civilization (see: Hysteria). While headway has been made in certain respects, we're still dealing with a lot of sexist bias. Fortunately, medical conditions are taken seriously if there's an approved, corresponding pill for the condition, so approving female Viagra would go a long way to normalize female sexual dysfunction in women.
5. So female sexual pleasure can be taken seriously
Going through all the trouble of designing a drug to fix a health problem means that it's worth spending millions of dollars on. All that and more is spent so men can reclaim their sexual pleasure, so don't women deserve the same? While the pill may not work for every woman nor be a miracle cure, flibanserin being approved by the FDA would be a public affirmation of the importance of female sexual pleasure, both within the medical community and within American society at large.
Images: Michael Chen/Flickr; Giphy (5)
