Effective Non-Drug Treatment for Women’s Desire/Arousal Problems
While drugs have so far done little to help women with low libido and arousal problems, researchers have come up with a non-drug approach that appears to offer significant benefits.
It may sound odd, but drug companies were loath to pursue medications to treat sex problems—until 1998 when Viagra took the world by storm. After its stunning success, the most publicized drug launch in history, you could almost hear pharmaceutical executives licking their lips in anticipation of the real money-maker, a drug to treat low libido and arousal difficulties in women.
Compared with men, women are more willing take medication, in fact, women take an estimated two-thirds of all drugs. Meanwhile, women’s sex problems, variously known as female sexual dysfunction (FSD) and women’s hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), are at least as prevalent as erectile dysfunction, and they affect women of all ages. If Viagra could rack up sales of $2 billion a year, then a drug for women—the drug industry figured the sky’s the limit, and went into frenzied overdrive to develop it.
But a funny thing happened on the way to winning this huge jackpot. Nothing worked. Pfizer spent eight years and tens of millions of dollars trying to show that Viagra could also help women, but the studies produced very mixed results, from no effect at all to modest benefit that was insufficient to win Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. In 2006, Pfizer gave up on Viagra for women.
Next up was the huge German drug company, Boehringer Ingelheim, which thought it had a winner with a pill called flibanserin. The studies were far from convincing, but eventually the FDA approved it under the brand name Addyi. Have you heard of this drug? Probably not, and if so, probably not much. That’s because it’s not popular among women or prescribing physicians.
While drugs have so far done little to help women with low libido and arousal problems, researchers at the University of British Columbia have come up with a non-drug approach that appears to offer significant benefits, a combination of:
• Relationship counseling.
• Sex education about women’s arousal.
• Progressive muscle relaxation exercises that involve consciously releasing tension around the body.
• The self-exploration and solo-sex exercises in Becoming Orgasmic: A Sexual and Personal Growth Program for Women by Julia Heiman and Joseph LoPiccolo, a classic self-help guide for women.
• Mindfulness, a form of Buddhist meditation that produces “relaxed wakefulness” and has been used successfully in treatment of depression, chronic pain, substance abuse, eating disorders, and couple distress.
The researchers recruited 26 women who had sought treatment for low libido and arousal problems at the British Columbia Center for Sexual Medicine. After taking standard tests of sexual function, in groups of four to six, they participated in three 90-minute education-counseling-meditation sessions spaced two weeks apart and led by a psychotherapist and a gynecologist trained in sexual medicine. Between sessions, they did homework involving mindfulness meditation and reading Becoming Orgasmic. After the third session, the participants retook the sexual function tests.
The mindfulness program increased the women’s desire, arousal, lubrication, and sexual satisfaction. The increase in self-reported arousal was highly significant (P<0.001). In post-program feedback, the women rated the mindfulness exercises as most helpful.
Why would a mindfulness meditation program boost libido and arousal? Because it promotes deep relaxation and focuses attention on the present moment. Deep relaxation and present-moment focus are fundamental to sexual arousal and satisfying lovemaking, and dovetail neatly with whole-body sensual massage, a pillar of sex therapy. Mindfulness and other forms of meditation carve a time-out from the stresses of daily living, and foster deep relaxation and a focus on the moment. Lovemaking involves the same things: a time-out from daily routines, deep relaxation, and a focus on the immediate experience of lovemaking.
I hasten to add that this report—and another similar study by the same researchers—are small pilot projects that must be replicated in larger trials before the results can be considered truly valid. However, I’m confident that these researchers are on to something. Women’s desire and arousal difficulties are not about quick fixes with drugs, but rather about women’s comfort with sex, their ability to relax, and how they manage the stresses in their lives.
[scroll down for related Questions & Answers]
References
Brotto, L.A. et al. “A Psychoeducational Intervention for Sexual Dysfunction in Women with Gynecologic Cancer,” Archives of Sexual Behavior (2008) 37:317.
Brotto, L.A. et al. “A Mindfulness-Based Group Psychoeducation Intervention Targeting Sexual Arousal Disorder in Women,” Journal of Sexual Medicine (2008) 5:1646.
Questions & Answers
I’ve answered more than 12,000 sex questions from people around the world, of all ages, for free. Here are a few that relate to the topic of this post. If you’d like to ask me a question of your own, please go to GreatSexGuidance.com.
Over the last dozen years or so, my wife of 22 years has slowly withdrawn from sex. We used to do it twice a week. Now we’re down to once every few months. I can’t stand it. I’ve tried everything, but she just doesn’t seem interested. I considered leaving her, but we have a family, and except for the way sex has poisoned our relationship, we have a good marriage. Read more and my response…
I'm 38. My husband is 42. Sex, when we have it, is great. But he is overly sexed. If I were willing, he would mount me 24/7. Meanwhile, I’m under-sexed. I don’t have much sex drive, nothing like his. I'm rarely in the mood, which makes me guilty and drives him crazy. Is there anything I can take to heighten my libido? Read my response…
My boyfriend and I have developed a desire difference. We’ve been together for 8 months. We have always had a healthy sex life. But recently I’ve noticed he wants it less or not as much as I do. He has even mentioned that if he was to leave me it would be because of this. He feels as though he can’t keep up or that he’s failing at pleasing me. Read more and my response…
I want to seek your advice on how to deal with a big desire difference between me and my partner. My preferred frequency is around 4 times a month, while he wants to do it every day. A huge gap. But what makes it more difficult is that when I do it just because he wants to, it creates a mental barrier in my head. Read more and my response…