Why Isn’t ‘Female Viagra’ More Popular?

Female Viagra has been on the market for a month and by commercial standards, it’s been…a dud. (Yahoo Health/iStock)

Only 227 prescriptions have been written in the U.S. for Addyi, aka the “female Viagra” since its release in mid-October, Bloomberg reports. By comparison, about 600,000 men received prescriptions for Viagra in its first month on the market in 1998.

Female sexual dysfunction, which Addyi is designed to treat, is a term used to describe a persistent, recurring problem with sexual response or desire that distresses a woman or strains her relationship with her partner, according to the Mayo Clinic. It includes vaginal dryness, difficulty reaching orgasm, and a lack of libido. It can be chronic or sporadic.

It took years of research and several administrative hurdles to get Addyi to market. The Food and Drug Administration rejected the medication, which is made by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, twice before approving it in the summer. Online campaigns including #WomenDeserve and Even the Score also pushed for its approval.

As part of the FDA approval, doctors must get certified to prescribe it. The certification requires an online training course on the drug’s potential side effects (which include low blood pressure and headaches) that takes just 10 minutes.

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However, only 5,600 doctors (one percent of the ob/gyns and primary care physicians practicing in the U.S.) have become certified, per Bloomberg.

Jason James, MD, medical director at Miami’s FemCare Ob-Gyn, is one of those doctors, but he tells Yahoo Health that he’s only written one prescription for Addyi since its release.

“I was under the impression that I’d have an influx of patients who would ask about it, but I haven’t seen that be the case,” he says.

But it’s not for lack of sexual dysfunction among his patients. James says a lower libido seems to be a “pervasive” problem among women in their 40s, but he also sees patients in their 20s and 30s who complain that their libido doesn’t match that of their partner.

But women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, MD, tells Yahoo Health that, despite the association, Addyi isn’t really Viagra. “Addyi isn’t designed like Viagra and female low libido is a more complicated issue than a man’s inability to maintain an erection, which is much more easy to measure,” she says.

It also costs more overall. “Viagra costs about $42 per pill, same as Addyi, but men can pop one pill right before sex and see results,” Wider says. “On Addyi, women need to build an effective level in their bodies; They have to take a daily pill for weeks before seeing results.” That can cost $780 per month if a person is uninsured or their insurance doesn’t cover the drug (many don’t cover “lifestyle” drugs like this), she says. (However, James points out that the company has a coupon program that’s supposed to drop the cost significantly.)

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It’s not recommended that women drink while taking Addyi as well, which can be another barrier. “For the few people that have asked about it here, the alcohol bit has played a role in them not trying the drug,” Stephanie Faubion, MD, director of the Women’s Health Clinic and Office of Women’s Health for the Mayo Clinic, tells Yahoo Health. Faubion, along with several other practitioners in her clinic, is certified to prescribe Addyi, but hasn’t written a prescription yet.

Finally, Faubion points out that Addyi isn’t designed for as large of a group as Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications. Rather, it was created for premenopausal women who have hypoactive sexual-desire disorder, i.e. a low libido that isn’t caused by a psychiatric condition, medication, or relationship issues.

James expects that Addyi’s popularity will grow with time and more marketing (as part of the FDA approval, the makers of Addyi agreed not to advertise on TV or radio for 18 months). But, he adds, “Whether it will become as popular as Viagra…I think that’s unlikely.”

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