Meet Your New Experimental Sex Drug: Flibanserin

Pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) is looking to create a lot of pre-emptive buzz for its gamble on the female sex drug market, flibanserin. Flibanserin is being developed as a non-hormonal treatment for low sexual desire in women, a market that's thought to be more financially lucrative than even the $2 billion dollar erectile dysfunction market.

On Monday they orchestrated several media releases, webcasts, and a presentation at a major sexual medicine conference in Europe, all to release data from Phase III trials on pre-menopausal women labeled with low sex drive (also k, or HSDD). The next few days and weeks will reveal how effective this first of many blitzes is likely to be.

All of this has everything to do with marketing and little to do with science. The data hasn't been released and no breakthroughs have been discovered. Still it's an opportunity to get a little more acquainted with a drug that changes brain chemistry and they hope will change, or direct, the global conversation on female sexuality.

Treatment

Medications can prevent, delay, or control the development of AIDS in many people infected with HIV.

Drugs That Fight HIV

These drugs are often given in combination. They are often referred to as AIDS cocktails. They include:

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors:

• AZT (Zidovudine or ZDV)
• ddC (Zalcitabine)
• ddI (dideoxyinosine)
• d4T ( Stavudine)
• 3TC ( Lamivudine)
• Emtricitabine (Emtriva)
• Abacavir (Ziagen)
  • In some patients, abacavir can cause a hypersensitivity reaction, which can be life-threatening. Researchers found that screening for a particular gene can help to prevent this reaction.

Nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors:

• Delavirdine (Rescriptor)
• Nevirapine (Viramune)
• Efavirenz (Sustiva)
• Etravirine (Intelence)

Protease inhibitors:

• Ritonavir (Norvir)
• Saquinavir (Invirase)
• Indinavir (Crixivan)
• Amprenavir (Agenerase)

Diagnosis

The doctor will ask about your symptoms, medical history, and risk factors. A physical exam will be done. Your doctor may order the following blood tests:

• ELISA test —used to detect HIV infection
  • 95% will have a positive test within three months of infection
  • 99% will have a positive test within six months of infection
  • If an ELISA test is negative, but you think you may have HIV, test again in 1 to 3 months
• Western blot blood test —usually do

Symptoms

HIV may not cause symptoms for a number of years.

Early symptoms may appear a month or two after becoming infected. They may last a couple of weeks. These include:

• Rapid weight loss
• Dry cough
• Sore throat
• Recurring fever
• Night sweats
• Extreme, unexplained fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes in armpits, neck, or groin
• White spots on the tongue or in the mouth or throat
• Headache
• Discomfort from light
• Rash
• Depression
• Irritable mood
• Memory loss or other neurological disorder

After these initial symptoms pass, there may be no symptoms for months to years. Then, the following symptoms may occur over the course of 1 to 3 years:

• Swollen lymph glands all over the body
• Fungal infections of the mouth, fingernails, toes
• Repeated vaginal infections ( yeast and Trichomonas)
• Development of lots of warts
• Exacerbations of prior conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, herpes infection
• Shingles
• Night sweats
• Weight loss
• Chronic diarrhea

It can be 10 years or more before HIV progresses to AIDS. This happens when T helper cell levels fall below certain levels and opportunistic infections arise. Examples of opportunistic infections and other complications of AIDS include:

• Thrush (an overgrowth of yeast)
• Pneumonia (particularly Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia)
• Invasive fungal infections (resulting in brain and/or lung infections)
• Toxoplasmosis infection
• Tuberculosis
• Viral brain infection
• Kaposi's sarcoma
• Lymphoma
• Cervical cancer
• Eye disease due to cytomegalovirus infection
• Intestinal infections, especially due to shigella, salmonella, and campylobacter
• Severe weight loss (wasting syndrome)
• Severe skin rashes
• Reactions to medications
• Psychiatric problems, including depression and dementia

Risk Factors

Factors that increase your chance of getting HIV include:

• Having multiple sexual partners
• Sharing needles for injecting drugs
• Having regular exposure to HIV-contaminated blood or other body fluids (a concern for healthcare workers)
• Being born to an HIV-infected mother
• Receiving donor blood products, tissue, organs, or artificial insemination
• Being an immigrants from geographic locations with high numbers of AIDS patients (east central Africa and Haiti)
• Having a sexual relationship with a high-risk individual or a partner already infected with HIV

Rarely, HIV can be spread through:

• Blood from an HIV-infected person getting into an open wound of another person
• Being bitten by someone infected with HIV
• Sharing personal hygiene items with an HIV-infected person (razors, toothbrushes, etc)

HIV is spread through:

• Sexual contact with an HIV-infected person, especially intercourse or anal sex
• Transfer of HIV from a mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding
• A prick from an HIV-contaminated needle
• A blood transfusion with HIV-infected blood (rare today, due to testing of all donated blood for HIV infection beginning in 1985)

Causes

The HIV virus is spread through contact with HIV-infected blood or other body fluids. This includes semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk.

AIDS is caused by the destruction of T cells. The destruction is caused by the HIV virus.

Immune System

HIV destroys white blood cells vital to the immune system.

Definition

HIV is a virus that attacks white blood cells called helper T cells (CD4). These cells are part of the immune system. They fight off infections and disease. As a result, an HIV infection can leave you vulnerable to severe illnesses.

AIDS is a late stage of HIV. It reflects severe damage to the immune system. An opportunistic infection will also exist. This is a type of infection that only occurs in people with compromised immune systems.

HIV and AIDS

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)

Related Conditions

• AIDS
• Anxiety
• Chlamydia
• Depression
• Female sexual dysfunction
• Gonorrhea
• Genital herpes
• Impotence
• Infertility (female)
• Infertility (male)
• Menopause
• Syphilis
• Vaginal yeast infection

Sexuality & Health

If you're considering having sex with a new partner, it is important to talk about the difficult topic of STDs first. It may be uncomfortable, but it is an important conversation that can protect you and your partner.