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Can Viagra Help Treat Women's Sexual Dysfunction? - Dr. Goldstein (VIDEO)

 
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More Videos from Dr. Irwin Goldstein 30 videos in this series

Can Viagra Help Treat Women's Sexual Dysfunction? - Dr. Goldstein (VIDEO)
Can Viagra Help Treat Women's Sexual Dysfunction? - Dr. Goldstein (VIDEO)
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Dr. Goldstein explains if Viagra® can be used to treat sexual dysfunction in women.

Dr. Goldstein:
So blue pill, Viagra®, and/or orange pill Cialis® or Levitra®, yellow pill Cialis®, orange pill Levitra®, whatever their colors are, certainly can help women. They, actually, they are just chemicals; they are not designated for men. They are phosphodiesterase inhibitors that in the process of sexual arousal either gender will actually dilate blood vessels to the genital tissues.

So Viagra® isn’t only meant for men in the chemical context. It’s meant for men in the government approval context, okay? That’s the different, you know, one is the political overtone. The chemical itself does not care whether it goes to the clitoris and/or the penis.

The data for Viagra® in men is very well described. It’s 11-12 years old now. It’s one of the safest pills on record with a great safety record and has changed the lives of so many people. There are now a growing number of papers coming out for use of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors in women.

The caveats for women are it doesn’t help with interest, and it doesn’t help necessarily with pain. It’s primarily for women with poor lubrication, dryness and orgasms that aren’t of great intensity. That’s the area of applicability to women, but hormones have to be normal.

One of the very important tips for women, among the three tips we have discussed, diet, exercise, great emotional intelligence in where you are, but hormonal health is very important. The testosterone in particular has to be healthy at a good level for testosterone to work. By the way, it has to be healthy to work in men too.

So the chemical itself is not gender-specific. The politics has made it a male drug, but the rules for phosphodiesterase inhibitors are gender non-specific.

About Dr. Goldstein, M.D.:
Dr. Irwin Goldstein is Director of San Diego Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, the Secretary of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, a former President of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America and a Clinical Professor of Surgery at University of California at San Diego.

Dr. Goldstein has been involved with sexual dysfunction research since the late 1970s. His specialties include penile microvascular bypass surgery, surgery for dyspareunia, physiologic investigation of sexual function in men and women, and diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in men and women.

Visit Dr. Goldstein at San Diego Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital

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