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German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim has uncovered an unexpected result in recent trials for a new product named flibanserin. Developed as an antidepressant, the molecule has instead been reported to cause a surge in sexual desire in women, for a possible female equivalent to Viagra in men.

According to a news article on the drugmaker's website, "the phenomenon was discovered when the company undertook mandatory tests on patients' libidos." Following up on these encouraging results, Boehringer Ingelheim has launched four new trials involving 5,000 women in 220 locations with the hope to apply for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval within the next three years.

Sources:

Boehringer Ingelheim

Business Week

What is Andropause?

That's the name for male menopause. It's characterized by many common symptoms usually attributed to stress, such as lethargy, low libido, memory loss and weight gain around the belly. A new clinic has been opened up to focus on andropause and has so far been a great success.

According to a story found at Channel NewsAsia, "two doctors at Changi General Hospital (CGH) [Singapore] started a clinic dedicated to andropause last month" with a goal to educate and offer diagnoses of this often unrecognized problem Since the clinic has opened, it's been fully booked.

The Channel NewsAsia article says that the "treatment can be in the form of tablets, implants or injections and the treatment period goes on for as long as it is needed." It appears to be a success, though, with patients often seeing an improvement within two weeks.

Antidotes to Antidepressant Sexual Side Effects

Louanne Cole Weston, PhD, shares information on ways to reverse the negative sexual side effects of SSRI type antidepressants. She says that a presentation by Anita Clayton, MD of Charlottesville, VA at ISSWSH conference detailed research "that will prove very interesting to me and to many of the clients in my therapy practice."  

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What's ‘normal’ sex? Shrinks seek definition

Brian Alexander, writing for MSNBC, tells us that this month the American Psychiatric Association announced the names of "working group" members who will guide the development of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, the codex of American psychiatry. One working group, the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders working group, will wrestle with such controversial "questions as: Are sadomasochism or pedophilia mental disorders? Are dysfunctions like female hypoactive sexual desire disorder (low sex drive) psychiatric issues, or hormonal issues?"

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Men With Low Testosterone Not Receiving Treatment

Robert Preidt of HealthDay tells us via AOL news that "many men with low testosterone levels don't receive treatment, even though they have access to care, according to a U.S. study."

The study, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, and published in the May 26 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, goes on to say that "under our assumptions, a large majority (87.8 percent) of 97 men ... with androgen deficiency were not receiving treatment despite adequate access to care. The reasons for this are unknown but could be due to unrecognized androgen deficiency or unwillingness to prescribe testosterone therapy."

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Patch aims to make you feel sexy

Linda Dahlstrom, MSNBC health editor, took Scentuelle’s “libido patch” for women for a test drive, er paste, and wrote her findings. It's a scented patch that's designed to "enhance feelings of sexuality through our sense of smell" when worn daily – a sort of aromatherapy-to-go. Read the full story to find out if the patch can work for a woman with a "14-month old son, a cat with a hairball problem, an overworked husband, a full-time job, and lately, what seems to be a chronic cold." The patch can be found at www.scentuellepatch.com.

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An Inconvenient Truth: Sexual Monogamy Kills Male Libido

Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá of the Lust in Paradise Psychology Today blog write about an article in Psychology Today that "profiles a therapist/author who suggests that married men with low libido can overcome this difficult situation if they just do it." Both disagree strongly with the argument the men should "just do it" and counter that "the sexually-monogamous husband of the hottest woman on earth will start to lose interest at a certain point."

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The Sex-Starved Wife

"Maybe your marriage started out on fire — you couldn't keep your hands off each other. But somewhere along the line, your husband lost interest in sex," writes Michele Weiner Davis of myLifetime. Maybe there was never a fire, but you hoped it would get better. Regardless of the cause, she has some "couple-tested solutions for bringing intimacy and heat back into your relationship."

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5 Bedroom Games to Rev Up Your Sex Life

Sex life a little hum drum? Julie Taylor of iVillage has five enticing games designed to spice it up. With names like "Driving Miss Diva" and "Naughty Nurse", you're sure to find something to please.

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Sex and Obesity

Dr. Steven Lamm writes that "patients with significant obesity are clearly at risk [for erectile dysfunction] for a variety of reasons, including the aforementioned conditions as well as sleep disorders and issues of lack of testosterone," in his Psychology Today blog, Great Sex. He cites recent reports indicating that weight loss can result in dramatic improvements in sexual function.

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ED an Indicator of Men's Health

"It is becoming clear that obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and erectile difficulties are intertwined." quotes HealthDay of Dr. Aksam Yassin, a senior author of a new international study in which Yassin "recommended that men with erectile dysfunction be evaluated for testosterone deficiency and any underlying signs of the metabolic syndrome."

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Cialis AdWatch — deconstructing the ED drug ad

In the third AdWatch video, see Consumer Reports dissect "a recent Cialis ad and tell you some information that the ad doesn't." The video takes a closer look at each statement in the ad and very effectively clarifies the missing or misleading information. [source: About.com]

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No Fem-agra

Shari Rudavsk of the Indianapolis Star examines promising recent research into low libido problems in women. She takes a look at treatments and medications such as Intrinsa testosterone patch, LibiGel testosterone gel, and Flibanserin, the so-called "blue pill for women", but also looks at the connection women have mentally to their sexuality and explores alternatives to chemical or hormonal treatments.

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Testosterone gel benefits some men with diabetes

A gel applied to the skin as testosterone replacement therapy is showing signs of helping men with low libido and type 2 diabetes and/or the metabolic syndrome in "their response to insulin and their sexual function," according to Megan Rauscherof Reuters Health. In a study presented by Dr. T. Hugh Jones to the annual Endocrine Society meeting in San Francisco, among other promising results, it was found that "testosterone therapy also led to a significant improvement in the score on a standard assessment of erectile function after 6 and 12 months."

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The No. 1 Issue of No Sex In Your Relationship: Is Anyone Out There Having Sex?

"The issues of low libido, lack of desire and simply falling out of love with a partner are in the top 3, of issues that present in my office," writes Dr. Arlene, a clinical sexologist. But don't lose hope just yet, because she goes on to say that "plenty can be done about it!"

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Lost Libido & More

Donald Zimmer of AskMen.com answers readers' questions and this week he's covering the topic of loss of libido in two very different situations. The first is a young woman with the suspected culprit being the birth control pills she recently started on, and the second being a man where stress could be the underlying source of his problem. There are a wide variety of possible causes for loss of libido in both men and women, but there's also a lot of research and information on it, and help can likely be found by talking to your doctor or a sexual therapist.

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Testosterone Poisoning Disproved

Recent images in the news had me thinking "oh, isn't that just so typical and phallic? What a case of testosterone poisoning!" In fact, research has shown that there's no truth to the phrase "testosterone poisoning", and it's well-known only because it's been popularized by some famous people, starting with Alan Alda. To the contrary, testosterone can have very positive effects on men, including improving "muscle mass and strength, sex drive, sperm production, boosting the libido, and more," according to an article by the Mayo Clinic that looks at the benefits of testosterone therapy for men with low levels.

More on testosterone at libido.com...

The "Sex" Tells A Story: Analysis of a Relationship

"Often couples come into therapy reporting that they seem to have lost the excitement and desire for each other. Usually this is a symptom of something much larger than merely a loss of libido," writes Dr. Arlene Krieger in this discussion of great sex, intimacy and more.

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ED from prostate cancer hormone therapy treatable

Doctors from Memphis have found that men who experience erectile dysfunction (ED) when being treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer, may respond well to therapies such as Viagra. In a story by Reuters Health, Dr. Ithaar H. Derweesh indicated that "ED is 'grossly underreported' by men treated with ADT" and "studies that have been reported in the literature have tended to focus on decreased libido (sex drive) and have not examined the issue of erectile dysfunction per se."

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Viagra helps depressed women: study

Yahoo! News has a story stating that "the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra has proven effective at combating sexual dysfunction in depressed women, according to a study published Tuesday." This is important because "sexual dysfunction is a common side effect of antidepressants," causing many people to stop taking them, and women don't have as many choices for treatment of sexual dysfunction as men do.

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Google launched Knol today, and while it's still all shiny and new, we decided to bring you the first libido-related story. It is in fact the only story that turned up when we searched for "libido".

Libido Problems in Women

Richard Santen, an endocrinologist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, has written a piece that starts out "Many women are distressed when they experience a decrease in interest in sexual activity (libido)* and often bring this up with their health care providers (1;2)." He goes into great detail on the topic, and it's hormone-oriented, but informative.

Read more and check out Knol while you're there...

What to do when your better half says "Not tonight..." and the problem is more serious than a "headache"

"A little blue pill may have taken the heat off men with erectile dysfunction, but what if your wife is having trouble in the bedroom?" writes Chantal Martineau in the blog for The Women's Sexual Health Foundation. She takes a look at the common causes for low libido in women and offers suggestions to "to get her back on track in the bedroom."

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Women, depression and Viagra - what you need to know

Dr. Petra Boynton takes a critical look at recent news reports that Viagra, the little blue pill, may not be as helpful to women being treated for depression as the news outlets implied after a study was published in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association). She discusses other factors that need to be considered and delves deeper into the findings of the study.

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When Viagra fails

Brian Alexander, MSNBC contributor, answers three questions, two are on libido, male and female, and the third addresses what to do if your child walks in while you're having sex. While your child seeing you having sex can certainly have chilling consequences for the libido, we'll focus more on the other two questions here.

The female libido question concerns whether or not the pill is the main factor in the low libido she is experiencing. He quotes his favorite study on the subject and writes that, "overall, women experience positive effects, negative effects, as well as no effect on libido during [oral contraceptive] use," and also makes some suggestions for solutions to consider.

The male libido question deals with what can be done if Viagra and Cialis are not working. Are there any other erectile dysfunction (ED) solutions that can be tried? The answer is yes, and a few are mentioned along with a "go see your urologist" recommendation.

Read Brian's answers...

Am I past my sexual peak?

Misanthropic Romantic asks the readers of Yahoo! Shine for help. Her libido has been low and she's wondering if she's past her sexual peak, if this is a temporary lull, or there's another reason behind it. The readers answer with suggestions for feeling more sexy, personal experiences of ups and downs, the effects of stress on the female ibido, and more.

These are not professional medical or psychiatric opinions, but she writes, "... as Mo'Nique would say, why pay a shrink $500 an hour to lie on a couch and ask for help when you can go through therapy for free with an audience?"

See the reader insights...