Viagra for women? A pill to enhance sex drive, to cause weight loss and even to give a sun tan sounds too good to be true, but an article published on the internet earlier this year suggested that this may soon be a reality. It has long been known that melatonin can enhance sex drive by acting on the brain to stimulate the release of the sex hormones female to increase sexual desire and scientists are now developing a synthetic version that can be swallowed as a pill prior to having sexual intercourse, rather than by injection. Melatonin also causes loss of appetite and thus this pill is also a slimming pill.
I have always been sceptical about women taking slimming pills which either suppress appetite to achieve weight loss or breakdown fatty foods for excretion from the body and I feel many of the manufacturers of these pills play on women’s emotions to replicate the slim appearance of the models in glossy magazines. Of course, getting slim boosts self confidence, but talking to my female friends, these pills can often have the effect of reducing libido, so whilst one might look more sexy one actually looses sex drive.
The sexual function of a woman’s body is far more complex than that of a man, hence whilst Viagra for men has been available for many years now, the so called “pink Viagra” has yet to come to the market. Women undergo two if not three major stages in their sexual functions, puberty and periods in their early teens, pregnancy/pregnancies in their twenties and thirties, and then the menopause usually in their late forties with dramatic change to the hormone balance in the body. Pregnancy in particular often results in loss of sex drive so that the more children one has, the lesser the sex drive, so perhaps nature’s way in curbing the number of children one has. Any artificial intervention in the functions of the body carries risks, for example, many women take the contraceptive pill to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but in my experience and talking to friends, in the long term this causes reduction in one’s period and could well accelerate the onset of the menopause, combined with consequential loss of sex drive but one wonders how compatible taking the contraceptive pill with a pink Viagra would be.
I have always felt that slimming pills are labelled as the quick fix to get that sylphlike figure. Why go to all that trouble to spend time working out in the gym or preparing healthy meals rather than snacking on junk food, when someone can just swallow that magic pill? I would strongly argue that just regular exercise to get/keep fit and eating healthily is the best way to create the conditions in the body for improved sexual function.
So do we need a “pink Viagra” for women? Maybe, but the other way forward and I would say the much more natural way, is having a course of Tantric massage whereby through massage the body’s sexual function can be stimulated, maintained and even released to enhance sexual well-being. It certainly works for men, yet few women try it which I feel is a great pity, so my remedy for a good sex life is keep fit, eat healthily, have Tantric massages and don’t be gulled into taking those slimming pills.