Take medication for HIV, hepatitis C, or high blood pressure that’s not under control.There are others who shouldn’t take the medications, including those who: Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not use either drug. So the FDA approved both drugs for premenopausal women only. Researchers have mainly studied how the medicines work in women who haven’t gone through menopause yet. “Others have no interest in taking a pill every day.” It’s best to talk to your doctor about which one would work for you. “There are certainly women who have no interest in injections,” Volkar says. The one you should take mostly depends on what works best for your lifestyle. Which one is right for me? Both drugs have different concerns and risks. Your cost will vary based on your plan, but out-of-pocket cost for flibanserin is about $100 for 30 pills (1 month’s supply). What’s the cost? Some insurance companies will cover HSDD medications. Because you can't fix HSDD if the problem is you really don't like your partner,” she says. “Because if you aren’t bothered by it, it’s not a problem,” she says.Īlso, your doctor will want “to make sure it's not related to your present situation or relationship. Volkar says the distress that a woman feels about her sex drive is often the driving factor in whether or not she needs to take medicine for it. If you answer “yes” to the first four questions, and there’s no other cause for your low sex drive, you probably have HSDD. Are there other things (medication, pregnancy, surgery, stress) that could be affecting your sex drive?.Have you been satisfied with your level of sexual desire before?.They can do that by asking screening questions, such as: How do I get them? Your doctor needs to diagnose you with HSDD in order to prescribe either drug. You may also need hormone therapy, if you deal with any physical issues that affect sex, such as vaginal dryness. Your doctor may recommend that you try sex education and counseling along with the medication. They just make you more likely to feel in the mood. It’s important to note that neither drug makes sex better. You inject bremelanotide only when you need it. You take flibanserin every day, whether you plan to have sex or not. Both drugs boost the activity of chemical messengers in your brain, called neurotransmitters, that are key to helping you feel aroused. You take one in a 24-hour period, and doctors recommend only eight shots per month. Bremelanotide (Vyleesi): It’s a shot you give yourself in the belly or thigh 45 minutes before you have sex.Flibanserin ( Addyi): It’s a pill you take every evening.The drugs the FDA has approved for HSDD are: “There are more factors at play in female sexual desire.”Īs a result, the treatment for HSDD requires a more nuanced approach. “I often say you can picture men's sexual desire as a light switch, and women's sexual desire as the cockpit of a 747,” she says. In women, low libido is a more complex problem. The drugs help by relaxing the muscles in the penis and boosting blood flow so an erection can happen. These men often still have sexual desire, but they just can’t get their bodies to respond physically when they want to have sex. Viagra and other similar drugs treat erectile dysfunction, when a man can’t get or keep an erection that’s firm enough to have sex. “In men, Viagra fixes a ‘plumbing problem,’ if you will,” says Judith Volkar, MD, of the UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. In fact, they work very differently inside the body. These treatments are often referred to as “female Viagra” - a nod to one of the medicines that men can take for sexual problems. But in recent years, the FDA has approved two prescription drugs to treat HSDD. There are a few over-the-counter supplements that aim to treat the problem, which have limited, mostly unproven, effects. It’s a condition known as hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). But roughly 10% of women deal with a low sex drive that causes them distress. For many women, sexual desire goes up and down over the years, often tied to changes in relationships, stress, and physical changes like pregnancy and menopause.
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