Let’s back up for just a minute and talk about the history of Viagra. I’ve spent a lot of time researching this drug and what I’ve read just amazes me. Did you know that it took just six short months of clinical trials to get Viagra approved to go on the market? In the world of pharmaceutical drugs, this is an incredibly short period of time.
Not to sound too cynical here, but I’m guessing that the vast majority of people who are making these types of decisions are men, and that they were more than happy to put this drug on the market. I could be wrong, but it does seem more than just a coincidence.
So Viagra goes on the market, and men start taking it, and most of them start having erections again.
This got some guys to thinking “well, if the regular amount is good, then more must be better!” which in many cases led to side effects like killer headaches and seeing a blue haze around everything.
Actually, even if you take even the recommended amount of Viagra you have to be careful, because if it is combined with other drugs like nitroglycerin, it can lead to serious problems.
One of the funniest scenes ever in a movie was in Something’s Gotta Give with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Jack’s taken too much Viagra, and ends up thinking he’s having a heart attack. So he goes off to the hospital, and after evading the doctor’s questions about whether he’s taken it he’s finally told something like “we want to give you a medication to help, but if you took Viagra, it will kill you.” And then he finally admits that he took it. Everyone in the theater was just cracking up at this because I think so many people could relate to it—men love Viagra, but they don’t want to confess that they took it.
But all things considered, Viagra and its pharmaceutical cousins seem to be pretty effective. But they were never approved for women. In fact, nothing has.
Interestingly, Proctor and Gamble has been testing a product made just for women for three years, but they have yet to get it on the American market. It’s a patch called Intrinsa, and it was approved over in Europe just last year. But not here.
To recap, Viagra can get approved in six months, but Intrinsa can’t. Honestly, this whole issue just sends me over the edge. It just really seems to me that women, who want and deserve to have great sex lives, are left feeling like their needs are not as important as a man’s.
Women need to stand up and say that this is not fair, and that we deserve to take something too.
In fact, I was thinking about starting a campaign to try to get a sexual health drug approved for women—would you be willing to help me with that? I think if we work together, we can accomplish a lot!