A potion for Venus

Not now, dear. What if your female partner tells you that today? What if she tells you that repeatedly for months? Medical experts say that if the case is the latter, she may have some kind of malady and they have a name for it. They call it Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). And in the medical world, when something ails you, there is usually a treatment for it, usually in drug form.

Drug companies have been on the hunt for years to come up with the potion to jumpstart a waning Venus. After all, Viagra has been in the market for over a decade, gloriously resurrecting male hydraulics. So why not address a similar concern in females?

I remember writing about a nasal spray called PT 141 that acts on the hormone for female desire. It seemed so promising then but now, there is a drug that has just overtaken it. It just concluded Phase III of its testing and it is called Flibanserin. It has made science news in many major news organizations including Time, Newsweek, The Guardian, inspiring blogs and comments on the development of this potion. I would have wanted PT 141 to have worked because I would really have gone on an investigative work how a passionate affair could really be pursued after any activity that involved nasal sprays.

If you are wondering why it is more difficult to conjure desire in women than in men, chances are, you are a man. I have written about the science of desire a number of times but if you are new to these columns, here is a quick lesson: Men are part hydraulics and part TV remote and/or automobile. As long as you push the right buttons and they go into regular maintenance, they will run reliably on the street of desire. Women, on the other hand, are a totally different story. There are no hydraulics, no direct piping that could be powered that will surely launch her into that same street with a man. She has to be in the mood for it and mood is not a fluid that is simply pumped through a tube from her brain to the body parts that matter. Mood is a very complex thing, and one of the hormones that affect is a compound called serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression and anxiety.

The makers of Flibanserin maintain that they are not sure yet of how the drug exactly makes Venus get back on track. But they think it visits the female grand central station (the central nervous system) and makes a rendezvous with serotonin and knowing what we know about serotonin, the rest is as they say, chemistry. I think this chemical teleserye has yet to unfold so I will update you on the characters involved as I come across them. Also, the drug has yet to be made available commercially.

Like in the case of Viagra, serendipity played a role in Flibanserin. Viagra then was being tested to cure some heart problems but it failed to do so; instead it produced side effects that were, shall we say, horizontal in direction. In the case of Flibanserin, it was being tested as an antidepressant but instead of making the subjects get some relief from the dark corners in their minds, it sparked some exciting chemical pyro festivals of desire.

But before you all go and balance the sheets of desire between men and women, hold your judgments. While Viagra seems to work for men of all ages (but dangerous for men of any age with heart conditions) you should be made aware that Flibanserin has only been tested on pre-menopausal women. This means that these women are still in their reproductive stages. They have not tested the drug on menopausal or post-menopausal women who are known to experience the waning of sexual desire because of hormonal changes.

Experts also cautioned against readily popping a pill for desire instead of figuring out the other possible causes of why the once oasis of desire within Venus is drying up. Most often, they say, the reasons are psychological. Maybe she is not happy with some aspect of her relationship. Maybe she is exhausted. Maybe her man is just all hydraulics.

This development reminds me of the male doctors in the 17th century who took it upon themselves to bring science to enlighten humanity on the seat of female desire. They homed in on a southern part with 8,000 nerve fibers and declared: “No alternative sites were proposed.” That was over 400 years ago. 

Men are funny in that they think everything can be laid out like a map. Now, medical science seems to think they have found a reliable route to Venus’ desire and that it can be reached by riding on this streetcar of a pill. It is yet beyond my understanding to tell you the exact whistle stops in Flibanserin’s route inside Venus. But as a woman, I can assure you that desire for us certainly feels more than the work of one hormone, or one chemical path. So gentlemen, go and try your maps but be explorers and not tourists. As science writer Natalie Angier writes, it is geography and not location. And geez, believe a woman when she says, “ask for directions.”

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