A New Focus on Female Sexuality
June 9, 2000 — It made her feel as tingly as a high school girl, says the
44-year-old New York marketing executive.
The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says she tried a topical
Viagra cream because she sometimes experiences periods of lower sexual desire.
The cream is applied 15 to 20 minutes before intercourse, and the result is
“a tingly sensation in the vaginal area,” she tells WebMD. “It made
me feel like I was back in high school — very erotic and arousing.”
The idea that Viagra might be able to help women, following on the heels of
its much-touted success in men, is bringing the topic of female sexual
dysfunction out of the closet and into everyday conversation. So is the medical
tag team of Laura and Jennifer Berman, PhD and MD respectively, who are helping
to shatter the myth that women do not have the same sort of sexual responses,
needs, and problems with desire and arousal as men do.
The Berman sisters have made television appearances on Larry King
Live and other talk shows, and are often quoted in newspaper and magazine
articles about female sexuality. At the annual Congress on Women’s Health and
Gender-Based Medicine, held recently in Hilton Head, S.C., they spoke about
their recent work and women’s sexual issues in general.
Laura Berman is a sex therapist who, with her sister, Jennifer, a urologist
at the Women’s Sexual Health Clinic at Boston University Medical Center in
Boston, is exploring both the physical and psychological aspects of low sexual
desire.
A recent survey looking at women ages 18 to 59 showed that 43% of women have
complaints about sexual function, Laura Berman says. She tells WebMD that women
need to tell their physicians when they feel that their sexual functioning is
not what it should be.
“[If] it’s something that’s missing for them, they should ask their
physicians about it — whether it’s complaints of lack of interest, whether
it’s lack of arousal, sensation, not being able to reach an orgasm, or the
intensity of the orgasm,” she says. This is especially true if the woman’s
sex life was OK before and suddenly changed.
Low desire, sometimes called hypoactive sexual desire disorder, is one of
women’s most common sexual complaints. To be considered a medical problem,
according to the American Foundation of Urologic Diseases, this lack of desire
must be “persistent and pervasive” and cause a woman personal distress.
This last point, Laura Berman says, is most important — “in other words,
one woman’s inadequate orgasm is another woman’s dream orgasm.”
The Bermans have been looking at what they say is a subset of low sexual
desire — low arousal disorder, which they define as an inability to achieve
adequate lubrication, swelling, and sensation (separate from orgasm).
One of the biggest problems in treating female sexual dysfunction is the
fact that so many factors are involved — the physical aspect, relationship
issues, self-esteem issues. “You can’t just send a woman home with
medication,” Jennifer Berman says.
This may be one reason why Viagra does not seem to hold the same promise for
women as it does for men. But in their research, the Bermans say, they have
found that Viagra does work well for a certain group of women, especially those
who don’t suffer from syndromes associated with chronic sexual abuse.
They studied 35 women, 23% of whom had unresolved sexual abuse issues, and
assessed them in terms of vaginal lubrication, quality of sensation, ability to
reach orgasm, and sexual satisfaction. Viagra appeared to bring about
improvements in all areas in 60% of the women who had no unresolved problems
related to abuse, and in 29% of those with chronic abuse issues.
Still, the drug is not for everyone. A 48-year-old New York health writer,
who spoke to WebMD on condition of anonymity, had a bad experience.
“I have panic disorder, so I take medications for that, and as a side
effect of that medication, I experience delayed orgasm,” she tells WebMD.
Her doctor suggested Viagra in pill form.
“So I tried it,” she says. “It was a very unpleasant experience.
My blood pressure dropped. I got a killer headache, and my face turned bright
red, and I had panic attacks — all without an orgasm.”
So instead, she reduced the amount of medication she was taking for the
panic disorder, and her sexual function has since improved.
Vasoactivate drugs such as Viagra continue to be studied in the U.S. to
determine which women will most benefit from them, Jennifer Berman says. Maybe
a drug like Viagra is not the same magic bullet for women as it is for some
men, but perhaps in combination with other drugs or hormones, it may still have
its place in the female sexual pharmacopia. Researchers also are looking at
testosterone pills and creams for women.
In their clinic, the Bermans use actual physical measurements to help assess
sexual problems. Jennifer Berman measures genital blood flow, vaginal pH (the
pH increases with sexual stimulation), inner vaginal pressure changes, and how
well the genitals perceive movement. Of the latter, she says that often, women
complain of “feeling asleep” in their vaginas or labia.
These measurements are important because assuring a woman there is a
physical reason for her lack of arousal or desire takes away the “it’s all
in your head” aspect.
When taking these measurements, the Bermans go so far as to choose erotic
videos that are more appealing to women. Those shown to men usually have little
if no effect, they say. The main difference, Laura Berman says, is “they
actually have a plot.”
The main point for women to take into the bedroom, she tells WebMD, is that
they should be advocates for their own sexual needs. If there is a physical
problem, it needs to be addressed. But women also need to learn about their
bodies and take responsibility for teaching their partners how to sexually
satisfy them, she says.
“Some women are under the impression that they will be perceived as some
sort of harlot if she shows him, describes to him, or instructs him how to
sexually satisfy her,” she says. “That’s really more of a myth than
anything else, and most men really do appreciate it.”
Vital Information:
- A recent survey showed that 43% of women have sexual function complaints,
with one of the most common being low desire. - Two experts on female sexual dysfunction advise women to go to their
physicians with any sexual problems, including lack of interest, arousal or
sensation; not being able to reach orgasm; or insufficient intensity of
orgasm. - Female sexual dysfunction can be treated, although this can be tricky due
to the many factors involved — physical aspects, the nature of the woman’s
relationship, and her self-esteem.
Originaly from Source