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5 The Search for the Female Viagra

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The Rise of Viagra
This chapter is in the book The Rise of Viagra
5The Search for the Female ViagraIN EARLY 2001, OPRAH WINFREY hosted two popular shows onthe topic “Why Women Aren’t in the Mood.” These shows featured theattractive Berman sisters, Jennifer and Laura, a urologist and a psy-chologist from Irwin Goldstein’s Boston University research group andnew codirectors of a sexual dysfunction clinic in southern California.1Here’s how Oprah opened the show:This is big, big, bigstuff. When we first talked about this silent epi-demic nine months ago, the response was overwhelming. We gotthousands of letters from so many of you who have lost your desire forsex and realized, by watching the show, that you are not alone. Todaywe’re going to tell you about some ground-breaking treatments thatare finally providing some answers for the millions of women suffer-ing in silence. We will take you inside a cutting-edge medical center inLos Angeles, where with the help of elaborate testing, women, women,are finally getting some solutions to their sexual problems.2The show featured a twenty-something African-American womancomplaining of “lack of desire for her husband.” The Berman sisterswalked this woman through an extensive medical and psychologicalexamination at their Los Angeles clinic, and diagnosed her with a formof FSD, or female sexual dysfunction.3Oprah was not the first to pick up on this story. Immediately afterViagra’s “blockbuster” debut, many wondered if the little blue pillwould work for women. Journalists and comedians reported that mid-dle-aged wives of Viagra users were now asking, “Where is my magicpill?” Countless newspapers and magazines ran stories introducing Vi-agra for men, followed with the question, “Will it work for womentoo?”4Amid this curiosity, hundreds of women nationwide volunteeredfor Viagra clinical trials. JAMAshockingly reported, “sexual dysfunc-tion is more prevalent in women (43%) than in men (31%).”5Many125
© 2022 New York University Press, New York, USA

5The Search for the Female ViagraIN EARLY 2001, OPRAH WINFREY hosted two popular shows onthe topic “Why Women Aren’t in the Mood.” These shows featured theattractive Berman sisters, Jennifer and Laura, a urologist and a psy-chologist from Irwin Goldstein’s Boston University research group andnew codirectors of a sexual dysfunction clinic in southern California.1Here’s how Oprah opened the show:This is big, big, bigstuff. When we first talked about this silent epi-demic nine months ago, the response was overwhelming. We gotthousands of letters from so many of you who have lost your desire forsex and realized, by watching the show, that you are not alone. Todaywe’re going to tell you about some ground-breaking treatments thatare finally providing some answers for the millions of women suffer-ing in silence. We will take you inside a cutting-edge medical center inLos Angeles, where with the help of elaborate testing, women, women,are finally getting some solutions to their sexual problems.2The show featured a twenty-something African-American womancomplaining of “lack of desire for her husband.” The Berman sisterswalked this woman through an extensive medical and psychologicalexamination at their Los Angeles clinic, and diagnosed her with a formof FSD, or female sexual dysfunction.3Oprah was not the first to pick up on this story. Immediately afterViagra’s “blockbuster” debut, many wondered if the little blue pillwould work for women. Journalists and comedians reported that mid-dle-aged wives of Viagra users were now asking, “Where is my magicpill?” Countless newspapers and magazines ran stories introducing Vi-agra for men, followed with the question, “Will it work for womentoo?”4Amid this curiosity, hundreds of women nationwide volunteeredfor Viagra clinical trials. JAMAshockingly reported, “sexual dysfunc-tion is more prevalent in women (43%) than in men (31%).”5Many125
© 2022 New York University Press, New York, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Preface 1
  5. 1 Introducing Viagra 7
  6. 2 The Rise of Erectile Dysfunction 29
  7. 3 Fixing the Broken Male Machine 63
  8. 4 The Pill Doesn’t Always Thrill 95
  9. 5 The Search for the Female Viagra 125
  10. 6 A Pill for Everything? 167
  11. Epilogue 183
  12. Appendix: Studying “Up” 191
  13. Notes 217
  14. Index 269
  15. About the Author 289
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814753224.003.0009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Preface 1
  5. 1 Introducing Viagra 7
  6. 2 The Rise of Erectile Dysfunction 29
  7. 3 Fixing the Broken Male Machine 63
  8. 4 The Pill Doesn’t Always Thrill 95
  9. 5 The Search for the Female Viagra 125
  10. 6 A Pill for Everything? 167
  11. Epilogue 183
  12. Appendix: Studying “Up” 191
  13. Notes 217
  14. Index 269
  15. About the Author 289
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