Addyi: A New Female Libido Pill?
(Adapted from my essay for Women’s Studies 401 Theories of Sexuality: “Commodification of Sexuality Through Pharmaceuticals”)
Our bodies, sexualities, and sexual experiences are commodified now more than ever before. We live in a world in which we are told to pop-a-pill to solve any ailment. We are told to go through extensive surgical procedures to fix any cosmetic imperfections. We are told that to be hyper sexualized, feminized, and eroticized, is to be normal. We have reached a point in our world today in which we must question: Is commodifying sexuality making us more or less authentic? And how, in some ways, are we becoming artificial sexual beings? For the purpose of this blog, I will discuss the commodification of sexuality through the recent introduction of the so-called “female Viagra” pill that came out just a few months ago.
Introducing Addyi
In the summer of 2015, a company called Sprout Pharmaceuticals introduced the first pill ever created to enhance women’s sexual experiences. This little pink pill is commonly known as Addyi. While Addyi was just recently introduced, feminist scholars have already begun analyzing the pill and discussing how it challenges and reaffirms tropes of femininity. Many feminist scholars are thrilled at the introduction of a pill focused solely on the sexual needs of women. They note that while men have had over 25 variations of pills to choose from (like Viagra) since the 1980’s, this is the first time pharmaceutical companies have shifted gears to focus on the needs of women. Addyi was created to treat a psychological disorder called Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). Since 2004, HSDD is classified as “persistently or recurrently deficient or absent sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity” (Pollack, 2015). According to survey data, only 10% of women in America are reported to have HSDD.
How Does Addyi work?
Unlike Viagra, Addyi does not work to create physiological changes. The drug is an antidepressant, working through the brain to increase sexual desire (commonly known as libido). The pill claims to monitor a balance of neurotransmitters in the brain like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, to increase desire for sex (Addyi, 2015). The idea of a pill created to address women’s sexual needs is seen, by some, as liberating. Some feminist scholars have proposed the idea that the creation of Addyi brings women’s sexuality and sexual needs to the forefront. They hypothesize that the introduction of Addyi could also encourage women to talk to their doctors about their sexual lives, experiences, and troubles with more frequency. While these possible cultural benefits of the drug are substantial, feminist scholars have highlighted that the fact that the pill works on a woman’s brain, not her clitoris, for example. The fact that Addyi was created to address an alleged psychological problem for women plays into traditional historical ideas of women’s hysteria, and frigidity. In contrast, a pill like Viagra simply addresses the physiological dysfunctions for men and their penises. So why not create a pill that increases blood flow to the clitoris? Why must scientists further the historical inaccuracies of women’s sexuality?
Who Can Use Addyi?
Feminist scholars also believe it is important to recognize that Addyi was not created for all types of women. Addyi has a plethora of potentially harmful side effects including severe drop in blood pressure, fainting, nausea, dizziness, and loss of consciousness. Accordingly, women with impaired livers or women past menopause are currently banned from accessing Addyi. Risks are also enormously increased if women consume alcohol while taking Addyi. This has led to the pill bottle including a black box warning to highlight the dangers of combining the drug with alcohol. Many scholars have criticized this risk, arguing that it is absurd to think that young women taking Addyi will refrain from drinking.
Addyi Capitalizes on Harmful Gender Norms
Feminist scholars have also discussed how, like Viagra, Addyi capitalizes on the idea that women worry about their sexual appeal and performance. Women are socialized, like men, to be a certain kind of sexual being. From media, the pornography industrial complex, films, etc., women are taught to be the object of desire for their partner. From a young age, women learn that to be hyper sexualized and feminized will please their partner. They are taught to prioritize the sexual needs of their partner over their own. This psychological burden can cause distress in women, and a fear of not “being enough” to keep their partners around. So if a woman cannot meet these standards, or suffers from HSDD, society tells her she is flawed. Perhaps the creation of Addyi perpetuates the illusion that if you do not have enough of a sexual desire, there is something wrong with you. But, that your sexual inadequacies can be fixed through a pill. Like with Viagra, this body-as-machine rhetoric encourages women to pop a pill, and become a more natural, feminized, sexually active version of themselves. However, many scholars argue that this concept, in fact, makes Addyi-taking-women all the more artificial.
Another exclusionary aspect to Addyi is the dosage and cost. Addyi is prescribed to be taken every night, so in this way it is not convenient for women who are busy working many jobs, raising children, studying in school, etc. The drug also costs roughly $400, and it is still unclear if insurance companies will cover it. And thus women who cannot afford to pay $400 for the drug are inherently excluded from accessing it. One further point of why Addyi is exclusionary to certain women is in the composition of the participants in the trial and testing period. Over 88% of participants in the Addyi trials were white. Thus, there is lacking data for how women of color or from different racial compositions would respond to the drug. With these problems in mind, we must ask: Who is Addyi really made for? It seems as though there is a narrow pool of women eligible to take Addyi. Perhaps only white, middle aged, married, non-drinking, wealthy women could thrive while taking Addyi. Feminist scholars find this problematic since the drug cannot likely be used in a widespread manner.
Works Cited:
1. Addyi (flibanserin) https://www.addyi.com Accessed March, 2016.
2. Boseley, Sarah. “FDA Approval of ‘Female Viagra’ Leaves Bitter Taste for Critics”. The Guardian: Health (August 19, 2015). Accessed March, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/19/fda-approval-female-viagra-critics-addyi-us-licence
3. Pollack, Andrew. “F.D.A. Approves Addyi, a Libido Pill for Women”. The New York Times: Health. (August 18, 2015). Accessed March, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/business/fda-approval-addyi-female-viagra.html?_r=1