Viagra: How Has It Affected Women?

Ten years since its launch, there seems no end to Viagra's success. The male sex drug has become one of the world's best known brand names and has restored sexual function to an estimated 27million men worldwide.

The number of users continues to increase by the week, in the process making Pfizer, its manufacturer, untold millions.

So far, however, there is no equivalent wonder pill for women, and whether Viagra use has caused equal delight among the often middle-aged female partners of the men taking it is another matter.

Indeed, many of them are battling with the mood swings and low libido induced by menopause, just as their husbands are experiencing sexual rejuvenation.

Not only that, Viagra use has been linked to a dramatic upturn in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases among older people, as husbands use Viagra to fuel sexual adventures elsewhere.

Over the past ten years, rates of infections such as gonorrhoea have increased by 227 per cent in men aged 45-64, more than four times faster than the increase in the rate among teenagers.

There are similar dramatic increases in other sexual infections in the same male age group, with chlamydia increasing by 315 per cent between 1997 and 2006.

Viagra has been almost as influential as the Pill in changing attitudes and behaviour. But as John Dean, the new president of the International Society for Sexual Medicine, acknowledges the drug has been a mixed blessing - not least because of the ignorance of male doctors about its effect on women.

"Before Viagra arrived, most doctors had zero training in dealing with these problems," he says. "Even now, although urologists regard male sexual function as part of their speciality, there is not the equivalent interest in female sexual health among gynaecologists." Read on >>