There are at least a half-dozen FDA-approved medications on the market to treat sexual dysfunction in men. Viagra was introduced more than a decade ago, followed by Levitra and Cialis. All of these drugs gotten very positive evaluations and work equally well.

Additionally, if a man suffers from sexual desire problems, he can choose from various prescription formulations of testosterone, including Androgel and Testim.

What about medications to treat women's sexual problems? Will we ever have an FDA-approved drug for women - a little pink pill that's the counterpart of the little blue pill for men? We are getting closer.

Several years ago, an FDA advisory committee reviewed an application by Procter & Gamble to market Intrinsa, a testosterone patch for women. There was no doubt that the compound worked, but committee members expressed concerns about its long-term safety.

While the FDA remains in dialogue with various sponsors of testosterone-based treatments, the Intrinsa patch has been approved for use in Europe and soon will be available in Canada.   

In the meantime, several pharmaceutical companies have gone on to develop other, non-hormonal treatments for female sexual dysfunction (FSD). Safety is always a concern but the potential problems the FDA associates with hormonal agents like the Intrinsa patch are not a problem for these other classes of drugs.

Flibanserin, one drug now in Phase III clinical trials (an advanced stage of testing in humans), acts on the central serotonin and dopamine systems in the brain. Various forms of the dopamine receptor agonist apomorphine are being studied but there are problems with nausea that must be overcome. Another promising drug, bremelanotide, is inhaled through the nose and acts rapidly on receptors in the brain. It is now being tested in humans in Phase IIA and IIB trials. Finally, tibolone is another hormone-based drug popular in Europe and now being tested in the U.S.    

These are only a few of the drugs being considered to treat female sexual problems. While all of this activity won't guarantee that a drug for women will soon be approved in the U.S., the sheer number of candidates in the pipeline suggests that we do not have much longer to wait.