Thirteen Aphrodisiacs

Oy, this is late for a Thirteen. Sorry. I began it last night, worked on it throughout the day, and now (9:38 PM) I’m hoping I’ll get it posted before midnight my time.

I had a three hour committee meeting tonight. THREE. HOURS. And to think I did this because I thought I might generate some fine writing material. NOT.

Well, let’s get started!

I’ll admit to some bias in assembling this list. I’m not interested in male aphrodisiacs — you won’t find any ground-up rhino horn here (and how non-PC does it get, anyway? Poor rhinos!) Male aphrodisiacs are all sympathetic magic anyway. Find something that looks like a penis or testicles, cook it up, and eat it. Or go straight to the real deal.

I know a couple of markets in Silicon Valley which sell bull, um, parts, but the gourmet in me objects. No, thank you.

But when it comes to augmenting the female libido, I confess to a scientific/professional interest as well. How do you manipulate emotions with pharmaceuticals or herbs? With depression, we’re way ahead of the game, but desire seems to be quite a different story.

Follow me below the fold for a glimpse at the not-so-new and exciting market of love.

1. Flibanserin is a fast-acting antidepressant from German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer. I’m wondering why the NIH’s clinical trial specifies, as one of their inclusion criteria,

Stable, monogamous, heterosexual relationship for at least one year

Desire is desire, isn’t it? Who cares if the woman is hetero or gay? I often wonder how many of these clinical trials are influenced by politics — our present Administration wouldn’t dream of fiddling with the science, now, would they?

Dr. Petra reminds us that just because a drug is being tested for something doesn’t mean it will be effective for that something. Thanks, Dr. Petra. Kill the buzz.

2. Bremelanotide (formerly PT-141) has a great web page: Bremelanotide — the female Viagra? See, if you put a question mark after it, any phrase is fair game. (As perfected by Fox News!) Walnut — God’s Gift to Women? Like so.

Aside from a host of press releases, the website links to the Bremelanotide Bulletin, which provides further links to solid clinical updates. From the phase IIa study on pre- and post-menopausal women, the company reports intense arousal “which lasted between 6 and 72 hours.” So, what is this stuff?

It’s a nasal spray derived from a product which was designed to cause tanning without sunlight exposure. No more pale vampires — now they can all look like George Hamilton! The drug did indeed cause tanning, and “spontaneous erections” in their male subjects. (Question to the researchers: how did you distinguist this from normal male physiology?) According to the Wiki,

Bremelanotide is a cyclic hepta-peptide lactam analog of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) that activates the melanocortin receptors MC3-R and MC4-R in the central nervous system.

Shorter version: it works on the brain!

This is the one to watch, folks — the data look impressive. Just a hunch.

3. Intrinsa If testosterone is Teh Hormone for sexual arrousal (in both sexes, supposedly), why not slap on a patch of the stuff? That’s the theory, anyway.

The FDA had put a hold on Intrinsa’s release in the States due to a lack of independent studies demonstrating safety and efficacy, but a quick Google News search turned up this timely tidbit (April 27, 2007):

Procter & Gamble has launched Intrinsa (testosterone patch) for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in bilaterally oophorectomised and hysterectomised (surgically induced menopause) women, receiving concomitant oestrogen therapy.

Intrinsa doubled the number of times the subjects engaged in sexual activity (from 1 episode in 4 weeks to 2 episodes in 4 weeks) and the side effects were not significantly different from placebo. Still, 2 sexual encounters in four weeks is not exactly what I would call a huge aphrodisiacal success, and I would still be leery of the androgenic side effects — facial hair, acne, and a voice like Rita Crosby.

4. LibiGel. Trouble with patches is, women tend to get local skin reactions. Wouldn’t it be better if you had a rapidly absorbed gel, applied once daily? Then you could apply it to different areas every day, and you would be much less likely to get a rash.

That’s the idea behind LibiGel, a testosterone gel which went into Phase III clinical trials last December.

All of these drugs have been called “female Viagra” by the companies who hope to market them. But what about the real deal — does Viagra work like a female Viagra?

5. Viagra. Turns out, meh, not so much:

Initial trials of Viagra in women proved highly disappointing. The drug enhanced engorgement of vaginal tissue, just as it had of the penis, but that extra bit of pelvic swelling did nothing to amplify women’s desire for or enjoyment of sex.

In retrospect, this was predictable. Viagra takes care of a hydrodynamic problem. That’s a guy problem, not a gal problem. Phrased another way: in men, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; in women lacking libido, the spirit is the whole problem.

We’ll skip estrogen supplements and go straight to the herbals. I should mention, though, that with regard to libido, topical estrogen (the Climara patch) may be a better drug than oral estrogen supplements:

Transdermal estrogen and oral estrogen have differing effects on androgens in the body. Oral estrogen lowers free testosterone and can lead to androgen deficiency (affecting libido among other things), while transdermal estrogen has little effect on testosterone levels.

6. Yohimbine is the active ingredient of yohimbe, ground-up bark from the tree Corynanthe johimbe. According to Land of Ahhhs (which has a lovely header photo — you really need to check it out. Lovely creamy cheeks, ahhhh . . .) yohimbine causes a tingling sensation in the groin, increased blood flow to the groin, and it also acts as a mild CNS stimulant. Her conclusion:

I tried it for a couple of days, as did one of my male volunteers. The consensus was that it helped speed up foreplay and sexual readiness, but wasn’t a substitute for it. You can walk around feeling a tiny bit warm and tingly (more so for my male volunteer than for me) but it’s not a “take me! take me now, you love machine!” in pill form.

Sadly, the demand for yohimbe as a treatment of erectile dysfunction may be endangering the trees themselves. Oh, and yohimbe may cause “renal failure, seizures, and death.” Details, details . . .

7. Hot Plants for Her. From that bastion of fine erotica, the Washington Post, comes this:

Karen Lyons, a 54-year-old native of Bluff City, Tenn. . . . works at a health food store that distributes Hot Plants, created in partnership with the Wisconsin company Enzymatic Therapy. Since she had a hysterectomy a year ago, she says in a telephone interview, she found her libido and her sex life in shambles. She says she tried another herbal supplement and “all it did was make my heart race like a heart attack.” She has been taking Hot Plants for a month now, she says, and her husband, a Baptist minister, is thrilled with the results. “I get tingly just to look at him now,” she says.

More to the point, according to Aphrodisiology.com (and Penthouse), Hot Plants is a winner:

Hot Plants for Her – the first place winner from my read. The female tester noted a definite increase in hornyness after about 4 days. The Hot Plants line was developed by an ethnobotanist that travelled the world researching the use of aphrodisiac herbs. According to Penthouse, this one is based on the Inca herb maca, although my research shows it contains Ashwagandha and other herbs that I think may be even more effective than maca. I’ve seen this one at some health food stores, a few pharmacies, and at Vitacost.com

More on Ashwagandha and maca below. But you know, I’d be a lot more eager about this one were it not for all that nasty press on yohimbe. I mean, how can you really know some of these herbs don’t mess up your kidneys or liver?

8. Arginine strikes me as a far more appealing choice. It’s one of the twenty essential amino acids. It’s also the active ingredient of Vasorect Ultra, Penthouse’s second place winner. From that Aphrodisiology.com post, “This one led to increased vaginal lubrication and turned the female tester into a human Slip-And-Slide.” I like the sound of that.

Arginine is yet another hemodynamic agent, a drug that increases blood flow to the genitals. Does it have any effect on the female libido? Rather than dick around with testimonials, I went straight to PubMed.

Here’s some positive data on ArginMax, an arginine-containing supplement. This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. And here’s another from the same group. I’m impressed.

9. Catuaba, according to the Wikipedia entry, “The name catuaba is used for the infusions of the bark of a number of trees native to Brazil.” They go on to list all the many trees which have been used to make this infusion. Not surprisingly (given the difficulty of standardizing such a nebulous mixture), PubMed is silent on this one — no clinical studies have been done. So we’ll have to see what the hucksters have to say about it!

The Tupi Indians in Brazil first discovered the aphrodisiac qualities of the plant and over the last few centuries they have composed many songs praising its wonders and abilities. Indigenous and local peoples have used catuaba for generations. It is the most famous of all Brazilian aphrodisiac plants. In the Brazilian state of Minas there is a saying, “Until a father reaches 60, the son is his; after that, the son is catuaba’s!”

Moving right along . . .

10. Maca. From the Wiki: “Small-scale clinical trials performed in men have shown that maca extracts can heighten libido and improve semen quality.” Excuse me? Improve semen quality? I didn’t know quality was an issue!

I like this one. It’s so cute, like a little radish, and you know? I can grow radishes like nobody’s business.

Not a lot of data out on maca. It doesn’t do a whole lot for male rats, I’ve learned.

11. Ashwaghanda — so-called Indian ginseng (at least they’re not calling it Indian Viagra. Man, I’m sick of that! Matzoh ball soup — Jewish Viagra! etc.) The word means “horse’s smell” in Sanskrit, owing to the fact it smells like a sweaty horse. More sympathetic magic.

Ashwaghanda has been used for centuries by Ayurvedic practitioners to promote strength, stamina, and male fertility. More recently, the hucksters are selling it (either as part of other preparations, or by itself) as an aid to female libido, too.

From my perusal of several herbal medicine sites, it appears that Ashwaghanda has no serious side effects. I couldn’t find any clinical studies on PubMed, though, so count this as a big MAYBE.

12. Damiana is a pretty li’l shrub with bright yellow flowers. It’s native to Central and South America, and guess what. It does it all. From the Wiki:

In herbal medicine, damiana is used to treat conditions ranging from coughs, to constipation, to depression. The herbal supplement is reputed to help with Energy, Emphysema, low Estrogen, Frigidity, Hot Flashes, Impotency, Infertility, Menopause, Parkinson’s Disease, PMS, Inflammation of Prostate, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and more dealing with reproductive organs in both males and females.

If it helps me with my Hair Loss problem, I’m sold.

13. Methamphetamine, like many CNS stimulants, can lead to hypersexuality. If you’ve never heard of meth’s effect on the sex drive, the reality is appalling:

Heightened sexuality is described in methamphetamine user and is frequently a desired effect of the drug. Because of this, the users often participate in bizarre sexual activity beyond their norms, and may participate in sexual acts in view of their children. They also commonly participate in frequent, unprotected sexual activity which results in many pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and hepatitis. There is almost always some form of pornography found in the homes of users. Children living in these homes are at increased risk of sexual abuse from witnessing sexually explicit activity, exposure to pornography, or being targets of the activity themselves.

Eventually, burn-out occurs, resulting in (I kid you not) the dreaded meth dick:

Taking Viagra, or Cialis did not work …. AT ALL. NO ERECTION, the dick was in a coma.

As for the 4 hour taffy pull … nope. NOTHING WORKED.

As a result, I have gone without meat, I am not a vegetarian … a woman cannot live on potatos alone …

And if that’s not enough to dissuade you, do a google image search for “meth”:

Sad, ain’t it? And a lot of these people are my patients.

Tell me what turns you on in the comments —

Eh, just kidding. Leave any old comment and I’ll give ya some linky, meth-free lurve.

Yippee! It’s 11:07 PM — it’s still Thursday!

Jona bakes a mean cake (or two) — and yes, she DOES need to start a business

Thorne serves up a YouTube viddy

Erin, he’s sucking it in.

Lyvvie would have to post a bunch o’ YouTube links while I’m on dial-up.

(*and she’s back to the sexy-eyes photo. Yay!)

noxcat proves things are still crazy in Texas

Gabrielle: waste not, want not

Kate’s botox treatment (kidding! kidding!)

Marcia Marcia Marcia

Sam’s indecent proposal

D.