Viagra for Women Sexual Dysfunction, Really? | Women Lifestyle, Fashion, Health, Beauty and Personality

Viagra for Women Sexual Dysfunction, Really?
Category : Dating Relationship, Sexual Life, Women Health

Picture of viagra for women Viagra often prescribed to help men’s erectile dysfunction, also helps women who experience sexual problems from antidepressant use, according to a new study. Viagra and related erectile dysfunction drugs appear to counteract sexual dysfunction in some women taking antidepressants. But those pills aren’t going to help all depressed women overcome a common side effect of their psychiatric medication. Four years after Pfizer abandoned trials seeking FDA approval of its use as a potential treatment for female sexual arousal disorder, new research suggests that the diamond-shaped pill may help some women overcome sexual side effects caused by antidepressants.
Women and men taking antidepressants called serotonin reuptake inhibitors sometimes experience a fading libido. An estimated 30 to 70 percent of people taking these antidepressants register sex-related complaints at some point. SRIs include Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa and Anafranil.

In women, this change can be compounded by decreased genital sensitivity, vaginal dryness, delayed or absent orgasms and general dissatisfaction with sex. Depressed women whose testosterone levels are low are particularly unlikely to find sexual function restored by Viagra, says Anita Clayton, professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia and an expert in treatment-related sexual problems. Furthermore, Viagra can cause its own side effects, from headache to flushing, and can’t be taken with nitrates, drugs typically prescribed for chest pain.
In the study, Nurnberg and his colleagues found that when women being treated with an antidepressant were given Viagra, they were more likely to have orgasms than those on the placebo.
”Seventy-two percent of the women on Viagra vs. 27% of the women on placebo got to ‘much improved’ or ‘very much improved’ on a scale [of sexual functioning],” says Harry A. Croft, MD, medical director of the San Antonio Psychiatric Research Center in Texas and a co-author on the study.

“Antidepressant treatment–associated sexual dysfunction is estimated to occur in 30 percent to 70 percent of men and women treated for major depression with first- or second-generation agents, a principal reason for a 3-fold increased risk of nonadherence that approaches 70 percent in the first months of treatment and leads to increased relapse, recurrence, disability, and resource utilization by affected patients,” the authors write. It is believed no randomized controlled trial has demonstrated an effective treatment for women experiencing sexual dysfunction associated with SRIs.
Nurnberg’s team has now shown that Viagra eases antidepressant-related sexual side effects for a select group of healthy, premenopausal women; it significantly improved their orgasm delay, compared with placebo. A prior trial that Nurnberg led showed a similar benefit in men taking antidepressants. “We are basically giving back to people what the medication [took away],” he says, adding that any of the Viagra-like drugs, such as Cialis or Levitra, should have similar effects.

Indeed, the results of this study might not be applicable to other women, the authors say. It remains unclear why Viagra would work for women taking anti-depressants, but not for other women. â€œThe bottom line is we donâ€™t know for sure,â€ says study coauthor Julia Heiman, a clinical psychologist who is director of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington. But these women might have been more motivated than women in previous studies. â€œWe were giving this drug to women who wanted this to change,â€ she says. In his own practice, for women with antidepressant-associated sexual dysfunction, Segraves has prescribed Viagra, which the FDA allows but doesn’t endorse. But he hasn’t been overwhelmed by its success: Only five of 30 or so patients have responded, and even then, the results weren’t dramatic. “It’s not going to make you suddenly desire your overweight husband who is sitting on the couch, drinking beer and watching football,” he says. “It doesn’t have any effect on libido.”

“What Viagra does in women with normal testosterone [levels] is engorge their clitoris [with blood], which allows them to have orgasm,” he tells WebMD. “Viagra acts on a man’s penis and a woman’s clitoris.”
The finding that the drug did not affect desire or arousal comes as no surprise, either, he says. “Viagra has never been shown to increase desire in men or in women.”