Sexually dysfunctional women in the United States
Sexually dysfunctional women in the United States are, well, mostly out of luck.
Unlike men, there are no approved drugs to take. If you go strictly by the rules, the best medical science has to offer is counseling, or a device that applies suction to your clitoris, or physical therapy for your vagina. While not to diminish these choices, where’s that convenient, little blue pill for women?
That’s what Joanne wanted to know. This isn’t her real name, but she’s a 26-year-old nurse at the Cleveland Clinic who felt no sex drive — nothing, nada, zilch — for eight years. She wasn’t happy, and neither was her boyfriend.
When Joanne asked her gynecologist for help, she told her to talk to her psychiatrist. Her psychiatrist said her antidepressants were to blame — they’re known to decrease libido in about a third to a half of women, experts say.
“My psychiatrist just kind of shrugged her shoulders,” Joann says. “It was just like, well, that’s a side effect of the drug. That’s just the way it is.” Watch more on how women can get their groove back
Finally, fate intervened on behalf of Joann’s sex life. Last year, the anti-depressants she was taking stopped working, and her psychiatrist had to switch her to a new one. “All of a sudden, my sex drive went through the roof. It was awesome. It was wonderful,” she says.
But it wasn’t perfect, or even close to it. Probably because of her long-dormant sex drive, Joanne could get sexually excited, but couldn’t reach orgasm. Again, after being shuffled around to various doctors, Joanne ended up with a urogynecologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
That doctor prescribed the anti-impotence drug, Cialis. At first Joanne thought it strange to take a drug meant for a man. But she tried it, and she says it’s helped somewhat. “I’m still not able to achieve orgasm, but I’m getting closer each time,” Joanne says. “We’re working with changing the dosage.”
Getting help for women’s sexual problems is often a long and complicated road. “This is an area that’s highly neglected,” says Dr. Sharon Parish, an internist at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine who treats sexually dysfunctional women. “Many primary care doctors have no idea what to do.”
So if you want help for your sexual problems, you may have to make suggestions to your doctor. “I feel like if I hadn’t aggressively pursued it, I’d still be stuck in the same spot,” Joanne says.
Here are some treatments for sexual dysfunction you can discuss with your doctor. Women’s sexual dysfunction is an area of medicine that’s highly neglected, experts say.
5 ways to get sex life going for women
1. Impotence drugs such as Viagra, Levitra and Cialis
Some studies, like one out this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show they work for some women with sexual problems; others have shown they don’t work.
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It’s a common complaint of some postmenopausal women - painful sexual intercourse. The condition is medically known as dyspareunia and it’s no fun at all.
Men and women in their early seventies are having sex more often and enjoying it more than their counterparts three and four decades ago, according to a Swedish study published Wednesday.