For decades, men have had a pill they can pop for an instantaneous hard-on. Although it’s intended for dudes with erectile dysfunction, even men with perfectly healthy penises guzzle Viagra for stronger boners, longer endurance, and less downtime between orgasms.
For all those years, women have wanted in on the action, too. If men could take a dose for erections on-demand, why was there no way to medically induce arousal in women?
Finally, now there is. This summer, the FDA approved “Vyleesi,” a drug designed to treat low sex drive in women. It’s an injectable pen women can stab into their thigh or abdomen 45 minutes before sex for a steamy, passionate humping.
Surprisingly, Vyleesi is the 2nd drug the FDA has approved to treat ladies with low libido. The 1st, called “Addyi,” never attracted the attention we would expect from the original “Viagra for women” due to difficult directions for use and sketchy business practices by the pharmaceutical company that created it.
Addyi must be taken every single day and can’t be combined with alcohol (because mixing the two can result in fainting). Women can endure the annoyance of popping pills daily — like antidepressants or birth control pills — in order to possess the motivation to get out of bed or prevent a tiny human from sprouting in our uterus. But the burden of a daily pill isn’t worthwhile just to have a wet pussy when the occasional opportunity for sex arises. And sacrificing the ability to get drunk, which is the primary motivation for fucking in the first place, is simply unacceptable. It’s no wonder Addyi never caught on.
Vyleesi has some obvious advantages over Addyi. It’s possible to only dose up immediately before sex, and you can take a stab at it while shitfaced drunk. Then, there are the obvious drawbacks. As if getting poked by a needle-dick isn’t enough, you also have a poke a syringe into your belly just to put yourself in the mood for it. What’s more, 40 percent of women in clinical trials became nauseous after taking Vyleesi. It’s essentially a coin toss whether you’ll want to fuck or want to vomit.
For years, the F.D.A. has been under pressure to pursue more treatments for women with low sex drives. The condition, known as hypoactive sexual desire disorder, is estimated to affect around 6 million young women.
However, the vast majority of women who suffer from low libido aren’t likely to be diagnosed with a disorder. More likely, they’ll go through life feeling like sex is a chore and resenting their partner for demanding it, but never assuming it’s a topic worth discussion with their doctor.
The market for male enhancement is booming, and even Silicon Valley start-ups are jumping in on the craze. Companies like Roman and Hims offer customers monthly subscription services for Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, without them ever needing to step into a doctor’s office. Young men carry around those “little blue diamonds” as an insurance policy to guarantee their dicks can still get stiff after a night of heavy drinking or drug-use.
Unfortunately, the market for drugs to boost women’s sex drives doesn’t even come close to the supremacy of the boner pill economy. The medications are more difficult to access, difficult to use, and come with far shittier side effects.
We’ve long been waiting for the day that ladies can exploit modern medicine to activate their horniness like the flip of a switch. “Viagra for women” has so far failed to fulfill these fantasies, perpetuating the tragic “orgasm gap” among men and women. For now, it seems women will continue to get the short end of the stick at the hard end of a dick.
Leave a Reply