This essay will describe how the success of Viagra stimulated drug companies to
create a women's sexual condition comparable to erectile problems in men
for which they could market new sex drugs to women. The heart of the article focuses
on two interrelated aspects of Viagra culture playing out in drug industry efforts
to create and expand a market for sex drugs for women: (1) the industry's
‘Hunt for the Pink Viagra’ to treat the
‘disease’ of female sexual dysfunction (FSD), and (2) the
prescription and promotion of off-label uses of men's sex drugs to women.
In order to contextualize these two trends, the article outlines key activities and
actions that have enabled the drug industry to consolidate power and build capacity
in this area, including: mass dissemination of estimates of disease prevalence; the
institutionalization of FSD in academic circles, which includes strategic revision
of disease definitions as well as the creation of a legitimized infrastructure for
dissemination of supporting research and education; and public-relations stimulated
mainstream media coverage. The article concludes with a consideration of the ongoing
challenges to the medicalization of women's sexuality as well as to harmful
corporate practices more broadly.
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