What are the characteristics of this disease, and they’d say, ‘We don’t know really.’ It seemed very fuzzy.

Controversy Over the Little Pink Pill

Medicine’s following their lead, not the other way around.” At the front of that invigorated pack? Cindy, their pink-suited entrepreneurial leader, who’ll never stop talking about a woman’s right to understand that better sex and true desire are part of her overall wellness. Lindsay Geller is the lifestyle director at Women’s Health, where she oversees the Sex & Love, Relationships, and Life sections and manages Women’s Health+ content. She has 10 years of experience covering sex, relationships, health, fitness, and general lifestyle topics for print and digital publications. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and loves going on runs around her local park with her rescue dog.

Let’s Get to the Root Cause

WASHINGTON (WLS) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first prescription drug to boost sexual desire in women, nicknamed the "little pink pill." The daily pill, called flibanserin or Addyi, claims to treat low libido in women by working with chemicals in the brain to treat Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder, HSDD, which affects approximately one in 10 women. Sprout Pharmaceuticals, maker of the pill, says it will become available on Oct. 17 and will cost between $30 and $75 a month with insurance, on par with Viagra. The FDA's approval comes with heavy safety restrictions which will likely prevent Addyi from achieving the blockbuster sales of male impotence drugs like Viagra, which have generated billions of dollars. The new drug's label will carry a bold warning that combining it with alcohol can cause dangerously low blood pressure and fainting. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with developing creams for pleasure if it doesn’t harm,” she said. “[Viagra] worked on men with erectile dysfunction [and] they thought this would be a bigger movement [that could work on women].

Product	Dosage	Quantity + Bonus	Price
Cialis Soft Tabs	20mg	180 + 8 Pills	353.17€ 336.35€
Viagra Original	100mg	92 + 4 Pills	362.88€ 345.60€
Kamagra Polo	100mg	60 + 4 Pills	189.39€ 180.37€
Cialis Original	20mg	92 + 4 Pills	377.99€ 359.99€
Levitra Generic	40mg	30 + 2 Pills	93.58€ 89.12€
Cialis Generic	10mg	270 + 10 Pills	308.71€ 294.01€
Levitra Generic	20mg	30 + 4 Pills	70.59€ 67.23€
Levitra Generic	20mg	360 + 10 Pills	458.44€ 436.61€
Levitra Generic	60mg	360 + 10 Pills	906.69€ 863.51€
Viagra Super Active	100mg	120 + 16 Pills	198.37€ 188.92€

In the video below, watch clips from the documentary.

The overlooked science of women’s desire

(Right now, Addyi is FDA-approved only to treat premenopausal women, but Cindy just received word that it’s been “fast-tracked” for approval in postmenopausal women in the U.S., which is a promising sign.) Whether officially diagnosed with HSDD or not, women in perimenopause tend to face the same struggles: mood imbalances, libido shifts, weight gain, and sleep disturbances. “Addyi works on every single one of those things,” Cindy says, adding that it does so without hormones. For women who can’t use vaginal estrogen or hormone replacement therapy for other medical reasons, Addyi can be a boon, but the comparison to Viagra has “almost allowed the medical community to not understand how Addyi works,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll sit in a room with physicians and say, ‘Tell me how it works.’ They don’t know that it’s brain chemistry.” To be clear, progress has been made. Today, you can’t pass a board exam to be an ob-gyn or urologist without answering a question about Addyi.

Does Addyi interact with foods or drinks?

Still, Cindy dreams of the day when doctors ask about sexual satisfaction as a routine part of a woman’s annual checkup. The longer-term goal is changing what the medical establishment prioritizes, from the top down. Cindy views the advocacy work she’s done with Addyi as part of a larger health care revolution. “Women are now like, ‘I’m gonna demand the care I deserve,’” she says. “The female population is challenging the medical establishment. In the web extra video below, watch highlights from the FDA’s Dec.

Pink pills are sometimes used to address sexual dysfunction in women.
They are marketed as natural or holistic remedies, depending on ingredients.
Medical approval varies; some are unregulated, over-the-counter supplements.
Users should check for FDA approval or medical supervision before use.

2, 2004 hearing on Procter and Gamble’s Intrinsa, a testosterone patch designed for women. Canner takes issue with framing low sexual desire as a disease or disorder. “I think the problem of putting this in a disease category is it will put pressure on women to perform sexually in a certain way.

What does this approval mean for other women’s health products?

“You have to take it every day in a long-term format.” Liz Canner is the director of Orgasm Inc., a documentary about the pharmaceutical industry’s race to create a female version of Viagra. Canner began working for a pharmaceutical company editing erotic videos to be used for a drug trial. She simultaneously began filming an independent documentary about science and women’s pleasure. During filming, she said she discovered that the pharmaceutical company seemed more interested in making a profit than helping women. “I remember asking things like why start working on a drug, and no one wanted to tell me that. It’s not a medical condition in that it’s a sickness or a disease,” Canner said, adding that some medications and conditions do contribute to reduced levels of sexual drive. “There are real reasons why women aren’t desiring their partners anymore—abuse, stress, [and/or] they don’t have a good sex life. This places it on women that there’s something wrong with them, and this can be a real problem and a setback.” What are the side effects of Addyi? The FDA lists dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, fatigue, insomnia and dry mouth as the most common side effects of Addyi. In addition, alcohol is not to be consumed while taking Addyi. “I think the really distressing part in all of this is the fact that the FDA approved this drug after rejecting it as an SSRI, and rejected it twice as a treatment for HSDD,” Canner said.

The Clinically Proven Treatment for Low Sexual Desire

Those problems can also occur if the drug is taken alongside certain common medications, including drugs used to treat yeast infections. The FDA has denied approval for the drug twice since 2010, citing concerns with effectiveness and safety. In June 2015, an FDA advisory panel voted in favor of the drug after hearing emotional testimony. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In the headlines it's often called female Viagra, but medical experts say it should not at all be compared to the erectile dysfunction drug.

How is Addyi supplied (dosage forms)?

The female version will become available in October and carries the brand name, Addyi. In June, it became the first Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to treat what's clinically called hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. But the pink-tinted pill was resoundingly rejected twice before by the FDA and Addyi continues to have more than its share of detractors. While the drug maker, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, says clinical trials showed it to improve women's libido, critics say the pill carries too many potential risks and questions still abound sexual tablets for women over whether female sexual dysfunction can be treated with medication. Joining Chicago Tonight to discuss the pill are Dr. “Women may be taking this drug for the rest of their lives, it may affect their babies.” Those may not be the only side effects of Addyi.

The pink pill targets issues like low desire and menstrual discomfort.
It may improve mood and increase energy levels in women.
Side effects can include headaches, nausea, or hormonal imbalances.
Its use is often personalized based on hormonal levels and health status.

“Those are the ones we know now,” Chaudhari said.

The term "pink pill" is often used metaphorically for gender-specific health solutions.
Ongoing research aims to develop more effective, safe female libido enhancers.
Cultural acceptance of such pills varies globally, affecting accessibility.
Awareness about female sexual health continues to grow, driving demand.

“Sometimes after people begin using medications, we find out about more bad stuff.” Previous FDA rejections and side effects aside, the drug could benefit some women.

i don’t have sexual thoughts anymore

In addition, external factors such as mood and relationship issues can affect a woman’s sexual desire. “This is why it makes it so difficult; research around this topic is so limited,” she said. “Studies on women are more difficult because we don’t totally understand women’s sexual response.” “Viagra is just used for men with erectile dysfunction, and it supposed to be used immediately before intercourse to maintain an erection,” Chaudhari said. “[Addyi] is meant to be a maintenance medication for women. “It’s not something you 20 mg vardenafil can pop before intercourse and be in the mood to have intercourse,” she added. “I think the biggest reason it wasn’t approved, other than the known side effects, was that it was only a small change in what people call improvement. On an individual basis, it could be big.

Why the Addyi story matters

Stacy Tessler Lindau, associate professor of obstetrics/gynecology and medicine-geriatrics at the University of Chicago Medical School; Dr. Jessica Shepherd, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago; Alessandra Hirsch, a project consultant with PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project; and Carl Jenkins, an FDA regulatory lawyer at the Wood Burditt Group. Addyi is the brand name of flibanserin, which was approved earlier this month by the FDA to “treat acquired, generalized hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in premenopausal women,” according to an FDA press release. “It’s basically decreased interest in sexual activity or desire, which is a very common problem for premenopausal and postmenopausal women,” Dr. Angela Chaudhari, a Northwestern Medicine gynecologist explained.

Other Interactions

“I think it affects 40 percent of premenopausal women and 60 percent of postmenopausal women. Unfortunately, it’s a big problem in the country and it’s not frequently addressed.” “Addyi is a serotonin 1A receptor agonist and a serotonin 2A receptor antagonist, but the mechanism by which the drug improves sexual desire and related distress is not known. It is dosed at bedtime to help decrease the risk of adverse events occurring due to possible hypotension, syncope and central nervous system depression (such as sleepiness and sedation). Patients should discontinue treatment after eight weeks if they do not report an improvement in sexual desire and associated distress.” Chaudhari says, “Looking at the mechanism of the drug is really interesting because we don’t totally understand how sexual response works in women.” That’s because sexual response in women is multifactorial. “Women are affected by chemical levels in the brain, and we think when we have high levels of one chemical, perhaps we can have a decrease in sexual desire versus other chemicals that might improve sexual desire,” she said. But in a study it’s difficult to prove,” Chaudhari said. “It doesn’t mean it won’t help someone.

Aspect	Description	Usage Frequency	Intended Benefits
What is the Pink Pill	A supplement or medication aimed at improving women's health	Daily, Weekly, As prescribed	Enhances mood, energy, libido
Main Ingredients	Melatonin, herbal extracts, vitamins	varies	hormonal balance, vitality
Target Audience	Women aged 25-50	N/A	Women's health improvement

I think it wasn’t approved [before] because it’s difficult to show improvement and this [time around] showed some. It doesn’t seem like a lot but to a woman affected by it, it may be enough for her to take on the side effects and the risks.” That said, Chaudhari says the drug should not be looked to as a panacea and she would prescribe it to select patients.

Age Range	Percentage of Users	Main Reasons for Use	Average Duration of Use
25-35 years	40%	Mood improvement, libido boost	3-6 months
36-45 years	35%	Menopause symptoms, energy enhancement	6-12 months
46-50 years	25%	Hormonal support, sleep aid	Varies
All ages	N/A	General wellness	Ongoing

“I don’t think it’s a panacea for the 40 percent of women plagued by this disorder,” she said.