Pharma's New Sales Pitch to Women: If You Aren't Horny, It's 'Sexual Dysfunction' -- Try These Pills

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



The Tyee / By Ray Moynihan and Barbara Mintzes

Pharma's New Sales Pitch to Women: If You Aren't Horny, It's 'Sexual Dysfunction' -- Try These Pills
How drug companies plan to profit from so-called 'Female Sexual Dysfunction.'

December 23, 2010 |


"We're hoping to be able to expedite the process ... of disease development ... " -- Drug company manager Darby Stephens


The woman looking confidently into the camera lens must be in her late twenties or early thirties, her long black hair falling over strong shoulders, a slip of striped blue material tied into a bow around her neck. Her red lips and good looks are striking, but it's her words that are most captivating. Her name is Darby Stephens, and she's a research manager at a California-based drug company called Vivus. The company is testing a drug for women said to suffer from a new condition called female sexual dysfunction or FSD. As Darby Stephens explains in an extremely candid on-camera interview for a documentary, FSD is so new that the drug company itself has had to help work out what the condition actually is: 'In order for us to develop drugs, we need to better and more clearly define what the disease is,' she said.

The frankness of the comments may be unusual, but the marketing activity being described is becoming commonplace. Pharmaceutical companies now assist in shaping the very diseases their drugs are targeting. Through its close ties to the medical profession and its influence over public debate, the industry is now helping to determine whether we see our sexual problems as every day difficulties or medical dysfunctions, and whether female sex drugs become a permanent feature in the bedrooms of our future.

The Californian company where Darby Stephens was manager of clinical research had started testing a pharmaceutical cream for women to rub on their genitals, to see whether it could enhance blood flow and boost their level of sexual arousal.

First you have to have a disease

Before the drug testing could go into full swing, however, there was a problem that needed to be addressed. As Stephens tells it, in order to get a drug formally approved and have insurance companies pay for its use, it has to be shown to work against a specific medical condition: 'The whole thing is kind of complicated because you have to have a disease before you can treat it.' ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/149318/pharma%27s_new_sales_pitch_to_women%3A_if_you_aren%27t_horny%2C_it%27s_%27sexual_dysfunction%27_--_try_these_pills/

[Speck Tater]

1. Next thing you know they'll have a pill to take to cure non-Republicanism.

"Not right wing enough? Don't worry. Take this pill and you'll start talking like Glenn Beck."

[Ilsa]

2. Will they come up with a drug to help men be patient enough for adequate foreplay?

Honestly, I think that's the real issue: people are overworked, rushed, and tired. They think sex is supposed to be a 20 minute event, then off to catch their five hours of sleep. The body isn't designed for that kind of experience.

[marmar]

3. True.....Sex has to be scheduled into the day just like everything else.

Ain't modern life wonderful?

[FreakinDJ]

6. If it was 20 minutes I would be overjoyed

45 - 60 even 90 minutes kind of ruins it

I have been guilty if not uttering, at least thinking "Today Honey Today"

Some women truly do need some thing to return to a normal state - and no it is not a size thing

[Ilsa]

7. I'm speaking of foreplay being a helpful part of women avoiding "dysfunction."

I agree, it isn't a "size thing" if women have found a compatible partner.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Join a gym...yeah baby!!

Who needs big Pharma to get in the mood when you can join a gym and...bow chicka wow wow. ;)

Seriously, I started doing these hardcore immersion workouts (alternating between kickboxing,
plyometrics, etc) and I'm ON 24/7. I wasn't this way before the workouts. Now, I wait for
my husband to come home...and 5:30 just isn't soon enough!

I won't get into all of the added benefits of being stronger and having more stamina. :)

That's probably more info that any of you wanted or needed--but there it is!

[Ilsa]

8. ITA. Staying fit helps the body be more responsive, even to the suggestion

of sex. I'm afraid too many people don't have the cardiovascular endurance, muscle tone, or "fit" hormones.

[Myrina]

5. Yes, because not being a raving nympho is just WRONG ...

:eyes: I hate this society more and more every day ...

[HockeyMom]

9. It's all in your mind,

or rather your BRAIN. While it's true for both sexes, it's probably more so for a woman. Silly pills won't change that.

[Grinchie]

10. The whole dysfunction thing is simply a side effect of Social Control mechanisms

I have traveled the world in my short life, and have seen hundreds of cultures. At this point in time, I see the more "Primitive" or stone age cultures, the few that remain, or the ones that actually were observed and documented as much more advanced socially than our Society ever will be.

In America, the poisonous hyprocrisy of Puritanical control over Nudity, the incessant Pavlovian training of Society to think Sex, Eroticism, Nudity or Carnality as something bordering on Evil on the surface, yet these same traits are exploited incessantly for Profit.

Instead of allowing individuals to experiance and learn about love and companionship, they are controlle to the point where they cannot stand it anymore, causing undesirable encounters that do nothing to create a healthy view on sexuality.

The fact is that Hollywood presents a false image to thousands of people, vs the reality found in more primitive cultures, where young people are actually afforded the time and privacy to learn on their own without Social dogma infecting the process.

Then, there is the age old process of "Redirecting" the sex drive in order to create more productive workers, and this is used by Parent, Church and the Government almost directly in that order.

As an aside and slightly off topic is the role of homosexuality in this discussion. Homosexuality is certianly found in nature. It is a fact that it occurs in wild animals as well as humans. This is because sexuality is programmed into us at the most basic level. Unfortunately, it is not very healthy biologically, and unlike humans that can take steps to avoid disease or damage, animals soon learn that there is a better way, and learn that heterosexual sex is the biologically preferred course of action. In humans, many times there is no room for experimentation and learning first hand like the Animal Kingdom is able to do. Humans are told what they can or cannot do, and the Human organism eventually rebels in some way.

There is a reason that the Government made Wilhelm Reich's life a living Hell and burned all of his books. He describes the method of control used by the Fascists in the 1930's that used many of the same techniques we see in society today. If one were to read his three volume set, The Cancer Biopathy, you would shiver in the description of how a society falls under the spell of Fascism, because we are seeing the same techniques being used upon us!

Reich's work, as well as that of Alice Miller - "For Your Own Good", are excellent sources to learn how we all have been manipulated into being good little drones, and they are key in breaking out of the cycle and actually evolving to a point of view that allows us to resist the controlling forces that we are subjected to.

Slightly off topic post, but it is related and I hope others can follow through and see the light like I did.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. Testosterone is what WORKS.

Unfortunately, testosterone and similar steroids have been demonized because of the professional athletes using massive amounts. They use far more than one man or woman would need physiologically for increased energy and sex drive. Testosterone is anti=inflammatory and helps with bone mass and prevention of muscle wasting.

[niyad]

12. eons ago, a friend told me that, when she was much younger (back before the earth's crust cooled) a

doctor (male, surprisingly) told her, "there is no such thing as frigid women, only careless, thoughtless, incompetent men". so maybe big pharma should work on pills for THAT (which reminds me, years ago I heard of some cream or other that was supposed to arouse women, with marketing that essentially said, "now there is a cream, so men don't have to waste time on foreplay". don't know what ever happened to that little piece of insanity)

[skepticscott]

13. So much of pharmaceutical marketing

is about selling diseases, rather than drugs. Convincing people that it's OK to have a certain ailment (and inventing a non-embarrassing acronym for it), and that even if you do, our drug will let you live the sweet, idyllic life you've always dreamed of. Fibromyalgia is a completely marketed disease (and marketed exclusively to women, since it can't be marketed to men). The cynicism is mighty depressing.