Limp reception for female 'libido drug' - health - 17 November 2009 - New Scientist
It's not hormone based, but rather affects seratonin levels in the brain like an anti-depressant. And unlike viagra it must be taken once a day, every day, for it have any effect.
A drug that boosts women's libido may have come a step closer after apparently successful trials.
Inevitably dubbed a "female Viagra", such drugs are objects of desire for the pharmaceutical industry, which sees them as a potential gold mine. However, flibanserin's effects are modest, and the results have reignited the debate over whether "hypoactive sexual desire disorder", which the drug claims to treat, is a real medical condition or a variation of normal human behaviour.
HSDD, defined as the persistent and distressing lack of sexual desire, is recognised as a form of female sexual dysfunction by clinicians, researchers and the drugs industry, but some doctors and therapists question it.
Flibanserin's manufacturer, German firm Boehringer Ingelheim, reported this week that women with HSDD taking the drug increased the average number of times they had "satisfying sexual experiences" from 2.8 to 4.5 times a month.