Female 'Viagra' will take years to reach India

By TOI,

Research on long-term effects of the drug Addyi and social unacceptance will delay the entry of the drug into Indian markets.

While women in the United States rejoice the approval of Addyi, the female 'Viagra', there's no reason for women back home to cheer as the drug may take at least three to four years to be introduced in the Indian market as trials are still on to ascertain its long-term effects, say doctors.

To add to their woes, the existing social unacceptance will further delay the use of the drug, which increases libido in females as has been claimed, say doctors.

"It will take three to four years for the female viagra to come to India as the clearance by the Drugs Controller General of India is a must," JB Sharma, a professor of gynaecology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, tells IANS.

"Also there exists a lot of social unacceptance in the Indian society, which needs to be overcome before making the medicine a success," Sharma says.

He says approximate 20-30% of the Indian female population suffer from problems related to lack of sexual desires.

Addyi is the first drug developed to address low libido conditions in women and to be approved by the US-Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

Under a US FDA-imposed safety plan, doctors will only be able to prescribe Addyi after completing an online certification process that requires counselling patients about the medicine's risks. 

Pharmacists will also need certification and will be required to remind patients not to drink alcohol while taking the drug.

Nupur Gupta, a consultant gynaecologist at Gurgaon-based Paras Hospital, says that as the drug is new and still under trial, the introduction of the medicine in Indian market will take time.

"Sales in India will be slow initially. Although Indian mindset is changing as per world's advancements, we will take time as we still think that treatment is possible without medication," Gupta tells IANS.

Men are happy with the female 'Viagra' for gone are the days of the 'fake headaches' and recurring periods. Women are happy that there's an alternative to oyrsters and champagne. 

Rejoice women, the magic pill, the pill that makes your little man in the boat float, is now a thing of reality. The much-awaited female 'Viagra' is finally available for you to purchase in hushed (slightly sheepish) tones over seedy counters. (The crowd cheers and all the women raise ecstatic toasts to the FDA approval of the little pink pill that promises sexual bliss. Men heave a sigh of relief that all those 'fake headache' days are a thing of the past. Or are they?).

It is unfair that Viagra, the blue diamond-shaped magic pill crafted by Jupiter himself, has been giving out a helping hand for about three decades, but no counterpart for the fairer sex has been found. (Viagra never worked on us girls. Well, we've always been notoriously difficult to please. Am I right guys?)

Before you start making plans for the night and get your poor man's hopes up, know this: Addyi tablets, produced by the wise hakims at Sprout Pharmacy (and we hate to be the bearers of bad news here, by the way. It gives us no pleasure at all doing this) DO NOT work the same way as Viagra. Cue the silence.

But don't get us wrong. It's going to take a lot more than pedantic nomenclature from stopping us calling it female 'Viagra' (because Aphrodite knows we've waited too long).

It's always been different for men. Like everything else man-related, their libido is also not that complicated. Viagra helps them get an erection by increasing blood flow to the penis. It really is that simple. As long as real emotions aren't involved, guys are happy. Am I right again?

But flibanserin, the generic drug which is packaged as Addyi, works differently. It essentially increases sexual desire in women, which may sound like a win-win situation for both sexes.  So you've heard about that weird 'fact' that a text notification on your phone sends a rush of dopamine (the sexy hormone) to your brain? That's basically what this pill does.

So there's my man, perched on his elbow on the side of the bed, a thousand-dollar grin plastered across his smug face and then there's little old me, faking my third period of the month. You know he'll buy it. Stupid man. He's even bought some scented candles and tried his hand at what he thinks is 'foreplay'.

So logic dictates I pop the pill right? That's what you thought too, right? WRONG! Stupid woman. That Addyi, unlike Viagra, does not work instantly might come as a MILD disappointment if you thought that all it took to turn up the kink was popping one of those pills. Don't lose hope ladies, you stand to gain a staggering half an orgasm a month(read: 'sexually satisfying experience') and that's when you pop the pill daily for 30 days. The number might dramatically increase to one (that's one added orgasm for you) if you're one of God's chosen few. (Wow!)

To put it boringly, sexual desire is, after all, a mere game of hormones and a slight tweak of hormones can do no one any harm.

Yeah you might faint or feel drowsy once in a while. (Side-effects are worse if combined with alcohol or other medications. There goes the occasional glass of wine. Ah, but who cares if there's pure sexual bliss to be had. We'd sacrifice entire wine cellars for that).

Meanwhile, it would be perfectly understandable if you wanted to congratulate Even the Score, a women's group, for bringing justice to women. It was on this group's insistence that the FDA, an organisation they described as sexist, approved Addyi, because approving a drug is all about sexual discrimination. Medical research is secondary when it comes to gender equality.

And how can we not thank Sprout Pharmacy for creating the wonder drug, and funding Even the Score (happy coincidence?)

Here's your reality check. Sexual desire is an important factor in a relationship but not the core of it.
Desire is a strong emotional attraction and not a hormonal kick induced by a shady pink pill.

Let us not forget we live in a society where women are advised (often by great-great-grand-aunts) to keep their men sexually satisfied otherwise the innocent men could fall prey to other 'attractions'.

Meanwhile oysters (or goat testicles, for that matter) are good commonly acknowledged aphrodisiacs, or so we've been told.