Future Sex: Are Sex Drugs For Women Doing The Trick?

Abby Ellin's newest “trend piece” for The Times details the growing market for over-the-counter sexual aids for women experiencing diminished sexual gratification. I've written here before on the emerging diagnosis of Female Sexual Dysfunction, an arousal disorder roughly equivalent to Erectile Dysfunction in men. The signs of the disorder include low sexual drive, inability to achieve orgasm, pain during sex, and inability to maintain sexual arousal. This new disorder remains controversial, although it will be officially added to the DSM-V, to be released in 2013, officially renamed “female sexual interest/arousal disorder.”

There are many factors that can affect men and women's sexuality and level of desire and many critics have claimed that pathologizing a woman's waning interest in sex chiefly serves a pharmaceutical industry that would seek to develop chemical interventions to "cure" these women. Perhaps, many wonder, the issue is rather with how we view women's sex drives and sexual pleasure.

Major pharmaceutical companies have yet to develop a drug treating FSD that has made it through the FDA approval process, though they have tried. Research has mostly focused on testosterone treatments for women to help revive their libidos, but boosting testosterone to improve female sexual experience has not yet been deemed safe and effective enough to bring a drug to the U.S. market. And when FDA-approved drugs aren't on the market, the non-FDA-approved manufacturers of supplements and lubricants step in. We're all used to seeing the male enhancement drugs at the bodega counter, ErectzBest and ExtenZe to name a couple, but manufacturers are increasingly creating blends to address female sexual dysfunction and, apparently, we're buying them.

Zestra arousal oil, a sexual enhancing lubricant is sold in 1,800 Walgreens nationwide, up from 800 only two years ago. And Intimina, an intimate lifestyles line by LELO, is sold at Pharmaca Integrative pharmacies. Ms. Ellin writes:

This month, LELO plans to offer 24 new products, including nipple masks, nipple spray, and "anti-aging and cellular renewal cream" for the vagina, clitoris and nipples and the skin around the inner thighs. There have been no medical studies suggesting that these are necessary.

Arousal oils typically contain some form of peppermint oil, designed to make a woman feel tingly and, ideally, enhance sexual stimulation. In my non-scientific research conducted by gchatting with all my online female friends I gathered that these arousal oils create a “weird, burning sensation.” One of my lady friends noted that she only used it when she was sleeping with guys she didn't really like, but now that she has stopped “sleeping around” she hasn't used it. She also remembered it feeling sticky and unnatural. Another woman said it might have enhanced her experience. A random male friend reported accidentally rubbing prescription-strength acid on his penis and finding that pleasurable, then painful, but that's just a bizarre tangent found in my surveying.

In a nutshell, I think it's better for women to seek out alternatives to hormonally-based pharmaceutical interventions. While I'm not sure we need renewal creams for our vaginas to achieve sexual satisfaction, if using peppermint oil or whatever helps some women, then I think it should continue to proliferate in Duane Reades across the nation.

Perhaps the booming OTC female sexual aid market represents the fact that women are increasingly dissatisfied with their experiences, as Ms. Ellin's column suggests, but I would perhaps infer that the increased availability of these products and the reduced shame around a woman buying herself a vibrator or special lubricant, is leading women to take control of their sexual experiences. No doubt there are women with real physical and psychological impediments to sexual satisfaction, but maybe more women are just looking to spice things up a bit.

Follow Kelly Bourdet on Twitter: @kellybourdet.