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Coming
soon: Female Viagra
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WASHINGTON: A female equivalent of Viagra
could soon be available to help women achieve the Big O, claim scientists.
A team working for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical firm behind Viagra, in
Sandwich, Kent, has uncovered a substance that boosts female love arousal,
increasing her chance of orgasm.
The findings could pave the way for a drug similar in effect to Viagra,
which has helped countless men.
In the study, using a novel prototype drug, researchers discovered more
about the mechanisms underlying female love arousal.
The finding is published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.
The boffins found that electrically stimulating the pelvic nerve increases
blood flow to the genitalia, and that this effect was enhanced if they also
gave a prototype drug (UK-414,495).
They believe that the drug acts by blocking the breakdown of an internal
chemical messenger that plays a key role in increasing blood flow during
love arousal.
When women become aroused, blood flow increases to the vagina, labia and
clitoris. This causes the organs to swell, and the vagina to relax, as well
as increasing vaginal lubrication and the sensitivity of the genitalia.
Female love arousal disorder (FSAD) affects up to 40percent of women
irrespective of age. These women find that their genital organs do not
respond to sexual stimulation, they find arousal difficult and this causes
them to become distressed.
"Before this work, we knew surprisingly little about the processes that
control all of these changes," says the lead researcher in the project Chris
Wayman. "Now we are beginning to establish the pathways involved in love
arousal scientists may be able to find ways of helping women who would like
to overcome FSAD."
In the study, researchers stimulated the pelvic nerve and measured changes
in genital organs.
They believed the genital arousal occurred because stimulation of the nerve
triggered the release of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a well-known
neurotransmitter. VIP has only a short-lived effect, because it is soon
broken down by an enzyme called Neutral Endopeptidase (NEP).
The researchers believe that their prototype drug increased the arousal
because it blocked NEP's ability to break down VIP, therefore letting the
VIP have a more powerful and prolonged effect increasing arousal.
- ANI / Times of India
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