This article is very, very good... It is a-must article for all of women around here to read.
The pharmaceutical industry's dreams of making large profits from treating female sexual dysfunction are starting to look like premature speculation
Introduction
Robert Wilson's bestselling book Feminine Forever helped persuade the modern world that the menopause was a "disease" of hormone deficiency, to be cured with hormone replacement.1 The book's 1966 front cover promised, "Every woman no matter what her age, can safely live a fully-sexed life for her entire life," and the hormones sold by Wilson's sponsor duly became best sellers. Forty years later, long term hormone replacement has been exposed as doing more harm than good, drug sales have collapsed, and Wilson's thesis is rightly ridiculed as corporate sponsored disease mongering.2 3
In the shadows of this overmedicalisation, the pharmaceutical industry is meeting unexpected resistance to its attempts to sell women the next big profitable "disease," female sexual dysfunction. This condition is claimed by enthusiastic proponents to affect 43% of American women,4 yet widespread and growing scientific disagreement exists over both its definition and prevalence. In addition, the meaningful benefits of experimental drugs for women's sexual difficulties are questionable, and the financial conflicts of interest of experts who endorse the notion of a highly prevalent medical condition are extensive. These controversies have been brought into focus by the rejection of Proctor and Gamble's experimental testosterone patch by advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2004.5
Controversy about the condition
The first step in promoting a blockbuster drug is to build the market by raising public awareness about the condition the drug is designed to target.6 In anticipation of regulatory approval of its testosterone patch—the first drug assessed for female sexual dysfunction—Proctor and Gamble unleashed a multilayered global marketing campaign. It sponsored key scientific meetings in sexual medicine, hired leading sex researchers as consultants, funded continuing medical education activities, produced a reporter's guide to testosterone, and created a publicly accessible website. It has worked with agents from three public relations companies and at least one major advertising firm to promote awareness of both the "disease" and the drug.
Proctor and Gamble's patch spokesperson, Elaine Plummer, told me that this is "Not an exceptional amount of firepower." Some industry reports suggest, however, that the company may have already set aside an initial $100m (£53m, 76m) to spend on advertising alone.7 Long before its testosterone patch had even been assessed for approval, the company's global marketing had been strategically targeting health professionals, reporters, and the general public, seeking to shape their perceptions of female sexual problems and how to treat them.
"The product the company is selling at this stage is really the disease," argues Leonore Tiefer, a psychologist and clinical associate professor at New York University School of Medicine. "I think Proctor and Gamble has a marketing plan that worked for shampoo. Create a buzz, get the word out, heighten consciousness, get people talking," she said. Since it has been hoping to have the first approved drug solution, says Tiefer, "it only has to get people talking about the condition, and present it as amenable to a drug intervention. Then it won't be seen as the company pushing its product, it will be seen as health education."
Proctor and Gamble has been seeking specific approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market testosterone to women who have had their ovaries removed and are taking oestrogen. Such women may apparently suffer from a subdisorder of female sexual dysfunction called hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Many of the company's initial marketing efforts have been designed to educate doctors and the public about these conditions. Yet although both conditions are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, both are controversial. Some Australian sex researchers have described the whole concept of sexual dysfunction as questionable because it downplays relational and cultural factors,8 and a group of the world's key figures in female sex research, led by Rosemary Basson, recently criticised hypoactive sexual desire disorder, describing it as a "problematic" diagnosis because it failed to fully encompass contemporary understandings of the complexity of women's sexual responses.9
Although agreeing that sexual difficulties may sometimes be due to a medical condition, John Bancroft, a former director of the Kinsey Institute, dismisses the notion of a dysfunction affecting 43% of women as outrageous. "It doesn't stand up scientifically," he said. He argues that reductions in sexual interest or other problems are often healthy adaptive responses and "an understandable reaction to adverse conditions in the relationship... or in the individual's general life situation."10 Because of the difficulty distinguishing between a genuine dysfunction and a healthy adaptive response, any survey based estimates of the condition's prevalence are, he says, unreliable.
The extent of this scientific disagreement and uncertainty is not reflected in the scientific and educational materials sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. Slides from the sponsored medical education package currently being delivered to doctors in the United States, called "Renewing sexual desire: understanding HSDD in postmenopausal women," do not mention the critical work of leading researchers including Tiefer and Bancroft. More importantly, the education package cites older work from Basson and colleagues without referencing their more recent revisions which describe hypoactive sexual desire disorder as a problematic diagnosis.8 Similarly, a company sponsored reporter's "guide" for the media11 and widely distributed press releases destined for public consumption12 present hypoactive sexual desire disorder as an accepted and uncontentious condition.
Asked about the widespread disagreement within the scientific community over how to define the condition, Proctor and Gamble's senior director of new drug development, Joan Meyer, agreed that defining female sexual problems was complex. But she defended company efforts to raise awareness about hypoactive sexual desire disorder, emphasising it was listed in established disease manuals. "We didn't make it up," she said. (Magatsu's note: surrrrreeee :roll
More... http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/192 (slightly long article)
Doctor's comment:
However, the reporter did not understand the truth about the product he uses to illustrate this issue. Intrinsa, is really not a "drug" at all, but a natural bioidentical hormone. What the FDA and most doctors and patients do not realize is that bioidentical hormone supplements can actually optimize your body's own natural hormones so they reach a target level that corresponds to the reference ranges for healthy young adults.
When one provides a person with bioidentical hormones based on a proper hormone evaluation, either clinical exam, saliva, urine and/or blood levels, and monitor the therapy it can provide nearly miraculous improvement in the quality of life -- not only one's sex drive. In addition, this "drug" does not even need to be approved, as there are tens of thousands of physicians who have been using it for many years through a compounding pharmacist. In fact, I take it myself to optimize the aging process.
Source: Mercokan
The pharmaceutical industry's dreams of making large profits from treating female sexual dysfunction are starting to look like premature speculation
Introduction
Robert Wilson's bestselling book Feminine Forever helped persuade the modern world that the menopause was a "disease" of hormone deficiency, to be cured with hormone replacement.1 The book's 1966 front cover promised, "Every woman no matter what her age, can safely live a fully-sexed life for her entire life," and the hormones sold by Wilson's sponsor duly became best sellers. Forty years later, long term hormone replacement has been exposed as doing more harm than good, drug sales have collapsed, and Wilson's thesis is rightly ridiculed as corporate sponsored disease mongering.2 3
In the shadows of this overmedicalisation, the pharmaceutical industry is meeting unexpected resistance to its attempts to sell women the next big profitable "disease," female sexual dysfunction. This condition is claimed by enthusiastic proponents to affect 43% of American women,4 yet widespread and growing scientific disagreement exists over both its definition and prevalence. In addition, the meaningful benefits of experimental drugs for women's sexual difficulties are questionable, and the financial conflicts of interest of experts who endorse the notion of a highly prevalent medical condition are extensive. These controversies have been brought into focus by the rejection of Proctor and Gamble's experimental testosterone patch by advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2004.5
Controversy about the condition
The first step in promoting a blockbuster drug is to build the market by raising public awareness about the condition the drug is designed to target.6 In anticipation of regulatory approval of its testosterone patch—the first drug assessed for female sexual dysfunction—Proctor and Gamble unleashed a multilayered global marketing campaign. It sponsored key scientific meetings in sexual medicine, hired leading sex researchers as consultants, funded continuing medical education activities, produced a reporter's guide to testosterone, and created a publicly accessible website. It has worked with agents from three public relations companies and at least one major advertising firm to promote awareness of both the "disease" and the drug.
Proctor and Gamble's patch spokesperson, Elaine Plummer, told me that this is "Not an exceptional amount of firepower." Some industry reports suggest, however, that the company may have already set aside an initial $100m (£53m, 76m) to spend on advertising alone.7 Long before its testosterone patch had even been assessed for approval, the company's global marketing had been strategically targeting health professionals, reporters, and the general public, seeking to shape their perceptions of female sexual problems and how to treat them.
"The product the company is selling at this stage is really the disease," argues Leonore Tiefer, a psychologist and clinical associate professor at New York University School of Medicine. "I think Proctor and Gamble has a marketing plan that worked for shampoo. Create a buzz, get the word out, heighten consciousness, get people talking," she said. Since it has been hoping to have the first approved drug solution, says Tiefer, "it only has to get people talking about the condition, and present it as amenable to a drug intervention. Then it won't be seen as the company pushing its product, it will be seen as health education."
Proctor and Gamble has been seeking specific approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market testosterone to women who have had their ovaries removed and are taking oestrogen. Such women may apparently suffer from a subdisorder of female sexual dysfunction called hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Many of the company's initial marketing efforts have been designed to educate doctors and the public about these conditions. Yet although both conditions are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, both are controversial. Some Australian sex researchers have described the whole concept of sexual dysfunction as questionable because it downplays relational and cultural factors,8 and a group of the world's key figures in female sex research, led by Rosemary Basson, recently criticised hypoactive sexual desire disorder, describing it as a "problematic" diagnosis because it failed to fully encompass contemporary understandings of the complexity of women's sexual responses.9
Although agreeing that sexual difficulties may sometimes be due to a medical condition, John Bancroft, a former director of the Kinsey Institute, dismisses the notion of a dysfunction affecting 43% of women as outrageous. "It doesn't stand up scientifically," he said. He argues that reductions in sexual interest or other problems are often healthy adaptive responses and "an understandable reaction to adverse conditions in the relationship... or in the individual's general life situation."10 Because of the difficulty distinguishing between a genuine dysfunction and a healthy adaptive response, any survey based estimates of the condition's prevalence are, he says, unreliable.
The extent of this scientific disagreement and uncertainty is not reflected in the scientific and educational materials sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. Slides from the sponsored medical education package currently being delivered to doctors in the United States, called "Renewing sexual desire: understanding HSDD in postmenopausal women," do not mention the critical work of leading researchers including Tiefer and Bancroft. More importantly, the education package cites older work from Basson and colleagues without referencing their more recent revisions which describe hypoactive sexual desire disorder as a problematic diagnosis.8 Similarly, a company sponsored reporter's "guide" for the media11 and widely distributed press releases destined for public consumption12 present hypoactive sexual desire disorder as an accepted and uncontentious condition.
Asked about the widespread disagreement within the scientific community over how to define the condition, Proctor and Gamble's senior director of new drug development, Joan Meyer, agreed that defining female sexual problems was complex. But she defended company efforts to raise awareness about hypoactive sexual desire disorder, emphasising it was listed in established disease manuals. "We didn't make it up," she said. (Magatsu's note: surrrrreeee :roll
More... http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/192 (slightly long article)
Doctor's comment:
However, the reporter did not understand the truth about the product he uses to illustrate this issue. Intrinsa, is really not a "drug" at all, but a natural bioidentical hormone. What the FDA and most doctors and patients do not realize is that bioidentical hormone supplements can actually optimize your body's own natural hormones so they reach a target level that corresponds to the reference ranges for healthy young adults.
When one provides a person with bioidentical hormones based on a proper hormone evaluation, either clinical exam, saliva, urine and/or blood levels, and monitor the therapy it can provide nearly miraculous improvement in the quality of life -- not only one's sex drive. In addition, this "drug" does not even need to be approved, as there are tens of thousands of physicians who have been using it for many years through a compounding pharmacist. In fact, I take it myself to optimize the aging process.
Source: Mercokan