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Sex pill developed that cuts weight |
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Written by Staff Writer
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Apr 30, 2007 at 07:07 AM |
A DRUG that boosts female sex drive while helping women lose weight is being developed by one of Scotland's leading experts on human reproduction.
Professor Robert Millar has been working on a hormone that can be used to treat loss of libido, a problem that affects millions of women each year.
The hormone-releasing pill has so far only been given to female monkeys and shrews who displayed more mating behaviour and ate less.
The team from the Medical Research Council's Human Reproduction Unit in Edinburgh believe a human version could be available within a decade.
But a psychologist said low-libido was usually caused by relationship issues.
Up to 40% of women are thought to experience a lack of sex drive at some point in their lives.
A third of women constantly worry about the way their body looks, a survey last year suggested.
When the pill was given to monkeys, they displayed mating behaviour such as tongue-flicking and eyebrow-raising to the males, while female shrews displayed their feelings via "rump presentation and tail wagging".
"The musk shrew is a very primitive ancestor of primates and when given to the females they displayed reproductive behaviour, and the males would mate with them."
The professor believes women given the hormone would see a similar boost to their sex drive and suppressing of appetite.
He is now working on reproducing it in the form of a pill, which could prove extremely profitable given the amount of interest pharmaceutical companies have shown in enhancing libido.
He said: "It is considered a major pharmaceutical endeavour to address the area of libido. So the next stage is to produce a drug that simulates the actions of this hormone.
"It is most likely that we will do it in partnership with a pharmaceutical firm. It could be available to women within ten years."
Although a number of drug treatments are already on the market aimed at treating obesity and sexual dysfunction, Professor Millar believes his discovery could lead to the first "lifestyle drug" that works on the sex drive and the appetite.
He suspects a pill which simulates the hormone could also work for men, but as yet he has not carried out any tests on male animals.
Dr Lesley Perman-Kerr, a chartered psychologist, said women would be more likely to take the pill to suppress their appetite than to increase their sex drive.
"Some women have problems specific to libido, but often if they go off sex, it's more to do with their relationship than with their level of libido," he said.
"In my experience, when couples come to me and they are not having sex, the last thing they want to do is examine their relationship. They want to believe that it's nothing to do with their relationship.
"So it may be that women would take the pill when they have a good sex life and they want to enhance it."
Sources:
Daily Telegraph
BBC News |
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