TLC vs. Addyi, the female Viagra

Earlier this week, when our newsroom heard about the approval in the US of a ‘revolutionary’ solution to help boost women’s sexual desire, immediately, the editors here got excited and saw it as content that would surely rock the news line-up for the day.

Why wouldn’t it? Sex sells.

But unlike my colleagues, I was not at all excited about this new pink pill. In fact I was rather sceptical.

To me, sex for women is about communication. It involves not just the language of the body but also the language of love. Which is why, as a woman, I find all this slightly offensive.

Why would women need a magic pill when the only revolutionary thing they need is some ‘magic’ in terms of communication in the bedroom?

If you don’t already know, earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved what is being billed as the first drug to boost sex drive in women.

The approval was controversial because in clinical trials, the pill was reported to be only modestly effective.

The FDA rejected the drug twice before, but with strong backing from lobbyists, it was finally approved.

‘Flibanserin’ will retail under the brand name Addyi.

Two days after the approval, it was announced that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International was buying Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Addyi, for about $1 billion in cash.

The approval process is not the only thing that has caused a bit of a buzz. Some might say, what is the big deal?

It is a big deal if one understands how a woman’s libido works. A woman’s sexuality is complicated – just like the way we think. Unlike men, women can’t rely on popping a pill and after a few minutes, flag up and be ready to go!

Women need more than sexual stimulation to get us going. We need that TLC (tender loving care) from our male partners to keep our libido busy.

Though I could not find numbers on how pervasive HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) is among women in Malaysia, I did find a report from the BBC stating that it affects between 5.5 million and 8.6 million women in the US.

Personally I have met quite a number of married ladies who take sex as a chore, mostly mothers distressed and depressed with husbands who don’t bother with foreplay and lovey-dovey scripts before finishing up 5 minutes later.

With partners like this, even women with healthy sexual appetites would, in time, develop problems in the love making department.

The BBC also reported that flibanserin was actually developed as an anti-depressant, and supposedly works by balancing chemicals in the brain.

And so, the debate is now, when one cannot treat poor libido in women the same way one treats erectile dysfunction in men, why alter our state of mind and expose us with all the side effects?

Why do women have to go through this painstaking hassle just to get ourselves satisfied sexually, when all we really need is that genuine, non-chemical drug that each and every women longs for from their partners.

TLC is free, easy and readily available. No?