Real Women's Experiences with the Pink Pill

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Warnings & Precautions

But when she saw the numbers and the science on that screen, “lightning struck.” Cindy spent the next year working with the “best sexual medicine doctors in the world” and listening to female patients share their experiences. “They came from all walks of life, but every person’s story at some point was exactly the same,” she recalls. This is the same struggle.” Despite being in happy relationships, these women had little to no sexual desire. When they were intimate with their partners, it often took the form of “mercy sex,” because they loved their partner and wanted them to feel pleasure, even though the women weren’t experiencing any themselves. The worst part: They didn’t know why they felt this way—and all of the so-called solutions (date nights, relaxing bubble baths, etc.) didn’t work.

Common side effects

Those real-talk conversations were Cindy’s secret fuel as she sold Slate Pharmaceuticals, founded Sprout Pharmaceuticals, and began the grueling six-year FDA approval process for Addyi, the first medication designed to treat HSDD in premenopausal women. She was determined that she and all those other women would be taken seriously for what they knew was happening to them biologically—not psychologically. HSDD is believed to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain (not unlike anxiety and depression), and flibanserin—the active ingredient in Addyi—impacts mood. “That’s how it was first discovered: It was a mood drug that had an interesting side effect in that it made you think about sex,” Cindy says. The way that flibanserin works in the brain is not fully understood, but it’s believed to interact with serotonin receptors, increasing the release of dopamine and norepinephrine, both of which play a role in sexual response and behavior.

Less common

“I am a firm believer that women’s biggest sex organ is here,” she says, pointing to her temple. Many antidepressants and antianxiety medications, such as Lexapro, Zoloft, and Prozac, are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which primarily work by increasing serotonin but can also have an indirect effect on dopamine. That one-two punch is known to decrease sex drive (one of the common side effects of SSRIs), so the theory goes that because flibanserin appears to act on those neurotransmitters in the opposite way, it would have the opposite effect. As Cindy and her team began developing Addyi, which she dubbed “the little pink pill,” the hyperfeminine hue also became her armor. Challenging the status quo was not easy, even with a track record. In the headlines it's often called

female Viagra, but medical experts say it should not at all be compared to the erectile dysfunction drug.

Why did it take so long to earn FDA approval for Addyi in the first place?

The FDA's approval comes with heavy safety restrictions which will likely prevent Addyi from achieving the blockbuster sales of male impotence drugs like Viagra, which have generated billions of dollars. The new drug's label will carry a bold warning that combining it with alcohol can cause dangerously low blood pressure and fainting. Those problems can also occur if the drug is taken alongside certain common medications, including drugs used to treat yeast infections. The FDA has denied approval for the drug twice since 2010, citing concerns with effectiveness and safety. In June 2015, an FDA advisory panel voted in favor of the drug after hearing emotional testimony. The female version will become available in

• Pink pills are sometimes associated with the "pink economy" in sexual health.
• They are popular among women seeking discreet, quick solutions.
• Not all pink pills are evidence-based; some rely heavily on marketing claims.
• Consulting a healthcare professional is essential before starting any supplement.

October and carries the brand name, Addyi.

In June, it became the

What does this approval mean for other women’s health products?

“I’d built a successful company in men’s [sexual] health, yet everyone would pat me on the shoulder and almost in a singsong voice say, ‘Oh, the little pink pill, that’s cute,’” she says. “It was so obvious what was embedded in that—making it trivial, the perceived weakness of femininity.” Her “unapologetically pink” outlook began to form, almost turning into a battle cry. She started wearing pink every day, and the shade became brighter and bolder with each subsequent FDA hearing for Addyi. She didn’t care if they didn’t take her seriously at first. Now, when she wears pink, she feels as if she’s “suiting up to go on mission.” That mission?

Does Addyi interact with other medicines (drug interactions)?

“It’s you getting to live your life on your own terms with complete agency over your pleasure,” Cindy says. That proud pink stance wasn’t her natural inclination. Like many women, Cindy had “absolutely no sex education” growing up, she says. Her father worked for the State Department, and she moved so much that she was in a different school every year from fourth grade through high school. “No chance I was getting clear messaging on sex,” she says, other than the societal narrative that “pleasure is a man’s to receive and a woman’s to deliver.” She sees firsthand the lasting effects of this notion.

IN CLINICAL TRIALS1, WOMEN ON ADDYI EXPERIENCED:

Whenever she meets someone new—say, at a cocktail party—and they ask what she does, she watches their reaction carefully as she explains her work with Addyi. “If it’s a male-female couple, the woman kind of shuts down, like, ‘Oh yeah, okay, I don’t need that,’ and the man leans forward and goes, ‘Can I take it?’” she says. “You see societal conditioning in a snapshot: The woman’s like, ‘I’m not supposed to talk about this,’ and the man’s like, ‘I am entitled to this.’” That might explain why, although Addyi received FDA approval and came on the market in 2015, you haven’t heard much about it. “It tells you how deeply embedded this is culturally—the daring to talk sexual tablets for women about women’s sexual pleasure.” Addyi was immediately dubbed “the female Viagra,” and for better or worse (mostly for worse, per Cindy), the moniker stuck. “In a way, you think [the comparison] is amazing: This can be as transformative for women’s health as Viagra was for men’s. first Food and Drug Administration-approved drug

• Some pink pills combine herbal extracts like ginseng or maca for effects.
• They are popular in wellness circles for enhancing intimacy and confidence.
• Research on pink pills' long-term safety is limited; caution is advised.
• Available through online stores, pharmacies, or clinics in some regions.

to treat what's clinically called

What women are saying

“Sometimes I’ll sit in a room with physicians and say, ‘Tell me how it works.’ They don’t know that it’s brain chemistry.” To be clear, progress has been made. Today, you can’t pass a board exam to be an ob-gyn or urologist without answering a question about Addyi. Still, Cindy dreams of the day when doctors ask about sexual satisfaction as a routine part of a woman’s annual checkup. The longer-term goal is changing what the medical establishment prioritizes, from the top down. Cindy views the advocacy work she’s done with Addyi as part of a larger health care revolution.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before using Addyi?

“Women are now like, ‘I’m gonna demand the care I deserve,’” gel erectile dysfunction she says. “The female population is challenging the medical establishment. Medicine’s following their lead, not the other way around.” At the front of that invigorated pack? Cindy, their pink-suited entrepreneurial leader, who’ll never stop talking about a woman’s right to understand that better sex and true desire are part of her overall wellness. Lindsay Geller is the lifestyle director at Women’s Health, where she oversees the Sex & Love, Relationships, and Life sections and manages Women’s Health+ content.

What are the serious side effects of Addyi?

She has 10 years of experience covering sex, relationships, health, fitness, and general lifestyle topics for print and digital publications. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and loves going on runs around her local park with her rescue dog. WASHINGTON (WLS) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first prescription drug to boost sexual desire in women, nicknamed the "little pink pill." The daily pill, called flibanserin or Addyi, claims to treat low libido in women by working with chemicals in the brain to treat Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder, HSDD, which affects approximately one in 10 women. Sprout Pharmaceuticals, maker of the pill, says it will become available on Oct. 17 and will cost between $30 and $75 a month with insurance, on par with Viagra. hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women.

Why do you think sexual desire in women is not treated seriously by the medical community?

But it also sets up the wrong notion of how desire works for women,” Cindy says. “Sex, for women, is not the performative act. It’s about being in the headspace of feeling sexy, being interested, responding to your partner or to [other] cues. We’re brain flow, not blood flow.” The comparison to Viagra also epitomizes the double standard that Cindy has spent a decade trying to dismantle. “The atrocity of women’s health is that we’re not taken seriously, and it shows up in so many ways,” she says.

How can I get more information about Addyi?

“First, it shows up in the regulatory queue, where there’s a double standard to get to an approval.” Viagra was “deemed to meet such an important unmet medical need” that the FDA fast-tracked the review process and approved it in less than six months. Despite having “three times as many patients’ worth of data” proving the efficacy of Addyi, Cindy says, it spent six years in the regulatory queue waiting for approval. That double standard also shows up in advertising guidelines: Hypoactive sexual desire disorder contains the word sex (the horror! “When we first put up ads, they were all taken down,” Cindy says. Even now, you’ll find Addyi commercials mostly on podcasts with a female-leaning audience, not on national TV, in clear contrast to the onslaught of ads for mail-order generic Viagra.

Are you currently using Addyi (flibanserin)?

Last but certainly not least, the double standard shows up in the medical establishment. Perimenopausal women are the largest demographic using Addyi—a patient group that has been, until recently, largely ignored, undermined, and misdiagnosed. (Right now, Addyi is FDA-approved only to treat premenopausal women, but Cindy just received word that it’s been “fast-tracked” for approval in postmenopausal women in the U.S., which is a promising sign.) Whether officially diagnosed with HSDD or not, women in perimenopause tend to face the same struggles: mood imbalances, libido shifts, weight gain, and sleep disturbances. “Addyi works on every single one of those things,” Cindy says, adding that it does so without hormones. For women who can’t use vaginal estrogen or hormone replacement therapy for other medical reasons, Addyi can be a boon, but the comparison to Viagra has “almost allowed the medical community to not understand how Addyi works,” she says.

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