If you look at the consumer information that comes with your weekend pills, you will see the usual line that this drug is intended for men. After all, when you look at the biology, it's a drug designed to dilate the main artery leading into the penis and, not a surprise, women do not have a penis. Although erectile dysfunction drugs will potentially improve the blood supply around the female body, dilating arteries here and there, there should be no direct effect on the level of sexual satisfaction. Except. . .

Here we come into an area of controversy. Talk to the feminists and they will tell you the drug companies are trying to create a new disorder and then invent a drug to cure it. They call this "medicalization". It started some time ago with period pain. Drug companies decided some levels of pain were unacceptable, labeled this premenstrual syndrome and identified symptoms including unhappiness, irritability and fatigue. Well, that's some serious stuff! There are now a range of treatments using antidepressants and hormone therapy. To make money, all the drug manufacturers have to do is convince women they are ill once a month. It's the same with low sex drive. In some, this is now labeled hypoactive sexual desire disorder. The idea is to convince women they should be more interested in sex or, having decided to have sex, they should find it more enjoyable. Except. . .

With men, you can see and feel whether the erection is hard enough to penetrate and stays hard long enough to arrive at a successful outcome. It's easy to measure performance. But for women, there are no agreed definitions of what they should feel. The mythology of the orgasm or climax is supposed to be the ultimate sensation of pure pleasure. In theory, this is involuntary with muscular contractions producing euphoria. Except, there is little agreement about whether this is vaginal or clitoral. And when the specialists, usually men, start speculating on how long a climax should last and how intense it should be. Well, let's just say, there's nothing certain. Against this background, Eli Lily has been running a clinical trial to explore whether women find extra pleasure from sexual activity when they take the weekend pill.

This was a 12-week trial involving 200 women all diagnosed with female sexual arousal disorder (we cannot even agree on the label). As in all randomized, double-blind trials, 150 women were given Cialis and the remaining 50 a placebo. During the three months, they were asked to write regular reports on their sexual activity. There was a consistent pattern with there being no evidence any any improvement using Cialis. Among the 50 on the placebo, the majority reported improved performance during the first two months and then declining effects. One-third noting specific changes in their symptoms. It therefore seems a placebo is more effective than the FDA-approved drug in women. Sexuality is complicated and, unlike men who can take the weekend pill and be back in the action with complete satisfaction, the physical and psychological make-up of the female orgasm may defeat the drug manufacturers. Indeed, they may just feel better if they actually enjoy being with their sexually active partner.