Is Female Sexual Dysfunction Real?

By Shanida Smith, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new article in the British Medical Journal suggests drug companies are behind the creation of a new medical disorder, female sexual dysfunction, to build markets for women's drugs.

Journalist Ray Moynihan says estimates indicating 43 percent of women have female sexual dysfunction are exaggerated and are being questioned by leading researchers. The controversy surrounds current attempts to "medicalize" sexual problems, he says.

Moynihan adds many researchers believe portraying sexual difficulties as a dysfunction will encourage doctors to prescribe drugs that change sexual function, when attention should be paid to other aspects of the woman's life, such as the emotional and psychological aspects. It is also likely, he says, to make women think they have a malfunction when they do not.

Moynihan concludes, "The corporate sponsored creation of a disease is not a new phenomenon, but the making of female sexual dysfunction is the freshest, clearest example we have." He says the public needs to scrutinize the role of drug companies when they promote new conditions.

In an interview with Ivanhoe, Irwin Goldstein, M.D., a leading urologist from Boston University School of Medicine, agrees that there needs to be more public scrutiny of drug companies. However, he says the claim that female sexual dysfunction is a fabrication is ludicrous.

Dr. Goldstein says, "When sexual issues cause distress, these men and women have a fundamental right to have their problems evaluated." He adds the problem is not solely based on emotional and psychological aspects and needs to be examined from the medical perspective also, just as other conditions are treated comprehensively.

Dr. Goldstein says the field of female sexual dysfunction is "very exciting, new and important, and a poorly understood field."

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.