Is "Viagra for women" just around the corner?

If you read the details, it generally is just a report on some researchers somewhere doing something that might help women take Viagra someday.

The dream is that someday there will Viagra for women as there is for men.

Reality is a lot more complicated than this myth. Viagra, is not approved for use by women, but some women do find some benefit from taking it. Studies have suggested it might help women who take anti-depressants, for instance.

The heart of the confusion comes in the idea that there can possibly be one pill that be as useful for women as Viagra is for men.

Viagra has a very specific chemical function; it solves a plumbing problem. It allows men to get an erection. This is a huge benefit to men, because without an erection, intercourse is impossible.

Women, though, suffer from a wider variety of sexual dysfunctions with a wider variety of causes. Some lack interest in sex, some have difficulty getting aroused, some have difficulty with orgasm, etc. Each of these difficulties may have a different cause for a different woman. Viagra won't solve all of these problems because each problem has a different cause in each woman.

So, though we might see "Viagras for women," a variety of treatments for a variety of causes of female sexual problems, there's never going to be a single Viagra for women" that helps such a broad class of women. It's just not going to happen.

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