Female Sexual Desire Pills Soon To Be Tested?

Are you a woman who just doesn't feel like having sex very often, or do you have a mental blockage that makes doing the deed an unpleasant affair? There may soon be a pill to make you feel more horny. Dutch researchers applied to the US Food and Drug Administration to carry out phase three clinical trials at the beginning of November — the last stage before a medication can be introduced to the market. 

What Is The Female Libido Pill?

The man (yes, man!) behind the female libido pill is Adriaan Tuiten, a Dutch researcher from the Almere research institute Emotional Brain. He and his colleagues are hoping that the FDA will approve their pills for phase three clinical trials, which would allow them to test their products on 1200 women. After the trials are over, the pills are just a short way away from a pharmacy near you.

Tuiten doesn't doubt that there would be a huge market for his pills — "at least as big as Viagra," he says, adding that he expects the pills would make six billion euros within a decade. One in five women struggle with a low libido according to Tuiten, and his pills would be a great success even if only a small percentage of those women starts using them. 

It's not the first time that someone has tried to develop and market a libido pill for women, so what makes the Dutch product unique? There are actually two different pills that would target different sexual issues:

• Lybrido is for women whose brains are under-sensitive to sexual stimulation. It consists of an outer layer that contains the hormone testosterone and an inner layer with Viagra. 

• Lybridos is for women who are indeed sensitive to sexual stimulation but who then block those impulses, perhaps because they've had a traumatic sexual experience in the past. This pill has an outer layer of testosterone as well, and an inner layer of the anxiety-fighting drug buspirone.

Read More: Five Minutes a Day to Better Sex with Libido-Boosting Yoga Techniques

Tuiten and his colleagues already tested the pills on a group of just over 50 women and published their findings in the the Journal of Sexual Medicine last year. They tested if the pills would cause sexual feelings in the women by monitoring the blood flow to their vaginas while they watched porn, and also asked the women to keep sex diaries at home. 

The results were promising, but phase three trials that allow testing on a larger scale should give more definite information about the functioning of the pills. One thing that would need to be tested is if the combination of the (already existing) drugs has more of an effect than the medications by themselves. Researchers also need to make sure that users' testosterone levels don't rise to quickly, which could have health implications. 

Is The Dutch Libido Pill A Savior Or A Pest?

The Dutch press was full of articles about the libido pill, and an article in a leading newspaper with the headline "Sexual-desire pill for women coming soon" was quickly the most read news item on its website. One cartoon even joked: "Full-circle: libido pill's side effect is a headache, so not tonight honey".

Sure, a libido pill could be a great option for women who are genuinely bothered by their lack of libido or who would love to be intimate with their partner more often but are held back by past traumas. 

Some — like the famous Dutch sexologist Goedele Lienkens — welcome the female libido pill with open arms. She said the pill will likely "save many relationships". Would it, though? I can certainly see the possibility that men would quickly say their partners have a medical problem if they want to have sex more often. A libido pill could simply turn into a weapon for a bullying husband or boyfriend.

There are many reasons a woman wants less sex than her partner, and a low libido isn't necessarily a medical problem that needs fixing. Whatever happened to mutual respect between partners? Negotiation is an integral part of all relationships, that much is true. You may just want to give in and spend the holidays with your in laws when you really don't want to, or agree to buy the car your partner wants.

I should also say that I think a desire to help women with past sexual trauma feel normal about their sexuality is a noble thing. You can't really get much closer to oversimplifying things than thinking a pill would solve these women's problems though. These women need to address the underlying issues they are struggling with though reputable therapy like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, not in the least because sexual trauma affects much more than a person's sex life. 

Read More: Top Reasons for Low Libido: Sex Drive Killers

I'm one of these women. Childhood sexual abuse has had an impact on my sex life. I've tried to "cure" that with alcohol in the past, something that is arguably similar to taking a pill. That allowed me to be intimate with my husband without feeling bad about it at that point, but it didn't fix the anger, anxiety and bitterness that ruled my life — those stayed until I found an excellent therapist and did lots of hard work with her over a long period of time.

Could a female libido pill help some women? Yes, absolutely, if they are the ones that want to benefit from such a product. It will never, however, be a magic pill that makes nasty relationships perfect or cures women from traumas.