The REAL reason many women have lost their sex drive

Drug giants have spent millions trying, but no one’s yet found a female Viagra. Why? They’ve all been looking in the wrong place . . .

Women, it seems, are increasingly losing interest in sex. Around a third of pre-menopausal women and half of older women report sexual problems, with lack of desire a main cause, according to the Sexual Advice Association.

A study recently published in the journal BMJ open found that more than a third of 5,000 women aged between 16-74 surveyed said they’d lost interest in sex for three months or more in the previous year. And nearly two-thirds of these women said they found their lack of libido distressing.

This is not a problem unique to women — around one in five men experience low libido at some point, but they definitely have the advantage when it comes to treatments.

It’s now 20 years since Viagra provided an instant fix for men who struggled to achieve an erection, however scientists have not been able to produce as successful a pill to help women feel more in the mood.

Some experts think the reason this has proved so elusive is that many women are dealing with underlying health conditions, from incontinence to menopausal symptoms and pelvic pain, that affect their interest in sex, and no ‘pink Viagra’ is going to sort this out.

CONCERNS ABOUT ‘PINK VIAGRA’

Yet for years a female Viagra has been the Holy Grail. So there has been some excitement about a drug called bremelanotide, which has just undergone successful phase 3 clinical trials in the U.S., the last stage before a drug can be licensed.

It was originally tested as a tanning pill in the eighties but was found to boost muscle recovery. Body builders of both sexes found unexpected benefits — the men reported spontaneous erections, the women said it put them ‘in the mood’. The drug company, Palatin Technologies, switched their efforts to developing it as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction.

The drug works by binding to chemicals in the brain involved in sexual desire, increasing production of the ‘feel-good’ chemical dopamine which plays a key function in arousal. For best effects, the woman must inject herself around 45 minutes before sex.

Trials found it worked better than a placebo but the development of the treatment suffered a setback in 2007 when the original nasal spray version was found to cause high blood pressure in some, leading the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. to halt trials.

The manner of administering the drug was changed to an injection. The latest trials have shown that as well as improving a woman’s libido generally, bremalanotide also makes sex more satisfying for premenopausal women. Palatin Technologies now hopes to make billions from worldwide sales.

But before the champagne is opened, experts urge caution. not least because bremelanotide would not be the first ‘female Viagra’ to be licensed and promise much — only to then fall short. Addyi was also labelled the female Viagra when it was launched in 2015.

originally developed as an antidepressant, it reduces the effect of the brain chemical serotonin, which in turn leads to an increase in dopamine levels.

In the UK, Addyi is yet to receive approval due to the cost ( up to £ 700 for a month’s supply) as well as concerns about its effectiveness.

even in the U.S., where it is licensed, take–up has been slow, probably because Addyi doesn’t help all women — only around 10 per cent found any increase in ‘ sexually satisyfing events’ compared to those taking a placebo, and around 75 per cent of those who take it experience sideeffects such as nausea, headache and dizziness.

It also has to be taken daily, and drinking alcohol can make sideeffects worse.

But if a pill isn’t the answer, researchers at the University of michigan in the U.S. have been trying out a new device which sends electrical signals from a needle inserted in a woman’s ankle to stimulate nerves and blood supply in the genital area.

Although it reportedly creates a pleasant tingling, there are concerns about how practical it is during energetic love- making sessions (as the needle needs to remain in situ).

LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE

THE focus on pills — and zappers — misses the bigger problem, say experts. This is not just that there are so many complex factors in female desire, such as stress and breakdown of relationships — though clearly these play a role.

‘A woman seeks intimacy which leads her to be receptive to sexual stimuli and only then feels desire,’ says Dr Catherine Hood, a consultant in psychosexual medicine at St Pancras Hospital, London.

However experts are increasingly admitting that often low libido in women is nothing to do with what’s going on in their head — there are a whole range of physical issues that can kill desire.

It might be that the muscles in their pelvis are so tense it makes it difficult to have sex, or the impact of the menopause makes it painful. Fix the physical problem, they say, and a woman’s normal desire for sex will return.

‘There are many physical reasons why women lose their desire for sex, including illness and pelvic pain,’ says Dr Hood.

‘It may be that drugs could help solve issues that are caused by genuine chemical or hormonal imbalances, but these are just one small part of a bigger picture when it comes to low libido in women.’

Yet these physical factors are often overlooked, says myra Robson, senior women’s health therapist at the Lewisham and Greenwich nHS Trust.

‘We see women who are trying to maintain good sex lives while dealing with issues such as endometriosis, [ where womb lining- like tissue develops elsewhere, causing scarring and irritation] which can cause deep pelvic pain; fibroids, which affect the lining of the womb, and stress incontinence, which affects one in three women after childbirth,’ she says. ‘These things need to be