Is the FDA-Approved 'Female Viagra' Pill Actually Effective and Safe?
LatestA month ago, the FDA approved the first pill meant to combat sexual dysfunction resulting from menopause. It’s called Osphena, and it purports to cure dyspareunia (pain during sex) by augmenting the declining estrogen levels responsible for “vulvar and vaginal atrophy,” a terrifying term that implies that menopause causes your body to decay and form a rotting flesh-coffin around your softly beating woman’s heart. Shinogi, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Osphena, claims that more than half of the 64 million U.S. women who have been through menopause would benefit from the drug. While it’s nice to see someone recognizing that woman over 50 do, in fact, have and enjoy sex, and while it’s great that someone is addressing sexual dysfunction in women, there are several things about Osphena that are in danger of being overblown or misrepresented entirely.
In an article in Newsweek, Jennifer Block notes that there are three significant questions that must be addressed before we hail Osphena as a major milestone in women’s health:
First about whether this is a real disorder affecting a large percentage of American women. Second about how Osphena was approved. And third about whether Osphena, which mimics estrogen and has similar known downsides, may also be a back-door, off-label replacement for “hormone replacement therapy,” which was discredited a decade ago.
According to Loren Wissner Greene, an ob-gyn and bioethicist at NYU, although there are women who suffer from dyspareunia, Osphena is “propagandizing” female sexual dysfunction and propagating inaccurate information. “Vulvo-vaginal atrophy” refers to the thinning of skin and muscle — a process which is not at all specific to the vulva, as it also causes wrinkles and grey hair — and all women experience it to some extent. She quotes an estimate that only 10 percent of menopausal women need medical attention, which is far less than the 60 percent that Shinogi claims.