New hope may be on the horizon for women suffering from a frustrating lack of sexual desire.
Researchers announced Monday that several major clinical trials showed promising results of an experimental libido-boosting drug called flibanserin.
The non-hormonal medication would be prescribed to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder, an under-treated medical condition characterized by a woman's lack of or drop in sexual desire that is placing a strain on her relationship with her partner.
"Women simply shouldn't have to live with a distressing lack of sexual desire," Dr. Anita Clayton of the University of Virginia said in a news release. "But right now women don't have many treatment options."
There is no FDA-approved treatment to treat the condition, which affects thousands of women. A 2008 study of 31,000 women found that one of every 10 suffered from a distressing lack of sexual desire.
German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim developed flibanserin in the 1990s when it was searching for new treatments for depression. Flibanserin failed to work as depression medication, but studies showed the compound increased subjects' sexual appetite.
The recently completed clinical trials confirmed the earlier results. A pooled analysis of 1,378 pre-menopausal women with a distressing lack of sexual desire tested the drug over 24 weeks and saw a significant increase in satisfying sexual encounters.
"This drug looks effective, safe and well tolerated at 100 mg at bedtime," Clayton wrote in an e-mail Monday.
Clayton was in France presenting the study's results at a meeting of the European Society of Sexual Medicine.
The drug significantly improved sexual functioning, decreased distress related to sexual dysfunction and decreased distress related to low sexual desire.
All women enrolled in the study were in "stable, communicative, monogamous, heterosexual relationships with a sexually functioning partner for at least one year," a news release said. The women ranged in age between 18 and 55 and were required to use contraception.
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