Long before I got my hands on Addyi, my yearning to yearn led me to a sex therapist named Bat Sheva Marcus, Ph.D., who advised me to set aside time each week for “conscious coupling” with my husband.
“ ‘How can I enter a relationship with somebody if I don’t have any sex drive?’ ” Later I experience this phenomenon firsthand after a routine doctor’s visit, when a young nurse who has seen my chart follows me out of the examining room. “They say, ‘I’m 25 years old what’s the matter with me?’ ” she tells me. Sheryl Kingsberg, Ph.D., chief of behavioral medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, is fielding requests for Addyi from patients in their 20s and 30s. Addyi aspires to the metaphysical, targeting a woman’s brain chemistry in order to boost her desire.Ī lackluster libido is the most prevalent female sexual complaint, and one that affects women across the age spectrum. Viagra is a tool designed for a man’s faulty hydraulics. The first medication ever approved for female sexual dysfunction in premenopausal women, Addyi has been called the “pink Viagra.” The label is erroneous. Its arrival marks the culmination of years of trial, development, and controversy. Such is the mystique of Addyi, a peach-colored pill that offers women the possibility of eros regained.
Back at home, I twist the lid off the pink-and-gray pin-striped bottle and admire its contents, each tiny oval a potential golden ticket. Now it’s tucked away in my purse, close enough for my fingertips to graze its contours throughout the day. I can think of no possession more thrilling-one I have coveted for months.