"I'm just not that interested in sex anymore." I have more patients in their 20s and 30s than you'd think coming into my office with these words. I'm just waiting for one of them to ask me about the drug that is touted as "Viagra for women." Ostensibly developed for women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, this gel will surely be marketed at any woman (or her partner) who thinks her sex drive is too low.

This is so typical of the modern mentality that the right med can fix anything--your weight, your mood, your age. (Not that men don't suffer from this as well--as my husband put it, pills can keep them "happy, hairy, and horny.")

But desire is more complex than mere hormone levels, as anyone woman in lust can tell you.  Desire is the result of an intricate interplay of emotion, affection, attraction, confidence, and how your day went. This cocktail is unlikely to be totally changed by a mere medication. And I hate the idea that decreased sexual desire may be viewed as her problem that she needs to fix.
     
Do hormones exert influence on our sex drive?  Certainly.  Might some women benefit from this medication? Perhaps--for some women, desire does seem linked to testosterone levels (sex drive goes down when testosterone is low).  But the biggest danger that I see is false expectations that a prescription can improve your sex life more than communication, and foreplay, and being with the right partner in the first place.  Do you have any concerns about your sex drive?