Illustrated By Ly Ngo. The road to a little blue pill for women has been a very long one, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most importantly, engineering a Viagra for ladies has proven to be an incredibly difficult task. Research has long shown that women's sexual arousal functions very differently than that of men — rather than just being a blood-flow issue, female sexual dysfunction is an endlessly complex interplay of hormones that go far beyond the old testosterone-centric theories of female sexuality. Of course, the very concept of a pill that could empower women to further embrace sexual desire is inevitably fraught with politics, making the process of bringing such a drug to market that much more frustrating. While a Big Pharma-produced option is waiting in the wings, the complexities of the issue make us skeptical of even the most promising of potential options.
Which brings us to Lady Prelox, a new offering now available in the UK that claims to be the long-awaited "Viagra for women." Drugmaker Nord Pharma claims that the drug is effective at increasing arousal in women by "encouraging blood flow to the reproductive organs, as well as the brain" — though this vascular approach doesn't seem to address the hormonal issues that often impact female sexual desire.
That said, a National Institute of Health study involving 100 women between 37 and 45 suggests that the pill does increase libido, without major side effects. It's an herbal supplement, which means you can get it without a prescription — although we should mention that a month's supply costs about $65. Of course, because it's an herbal supplement, there's a very good chance that those expensive little pills don't actually contain the ingredients they claim to — or that they simply won't work as advertised. Let's debate: Would you pay $2 a day for a theoretically magic sex pill, or wait for a more legit alternative?
(The Telegraph)
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