One day when I told my mother my bitchy mood was due to PMS, my mother advised me that PMS was a bunch of pretense, well, she used the word bullshit actually. She informed me there was no PMS in the 60′s or 70′s. PMS was invented in the 80′s. She considered it a mock syndrome that pharmaceutical companies created so that they could market treatments to women who supposedly experienced its symptoms. Despite the bullshit, PMS seems to have been integrated into our culture. I never knew a time without PMS being accepted. Now another ladies only syndrome has arisen from the depths of our female anatomy and hormones or from the depths of the marketing departments of BigPharma. Restless Vagina Syndrome. Are you picturing a slutty vagina, out for sex, sex and more sex? Actually, it’s the reverse. Restless Vagina Syndrome is part of FSD, Female Sexual Dysfunction, which manifests in a spectrum of symptoms including decreased sexual desire, pain when having sex (usually vagina pain) or difficulty in achieving orgasm through sex. So does the cliche prevail: Perception is everything? If we perceive we have PMS or FSD, do we have it?

I’m not in doubt Female Sexual Dysfunction exists, but I am skeptical how it’s being promoted to women. Have clever drug companies created subtle or not so subtle suggestions that to a certain extent, like PMS, we all suffer from some aspect of FSD and therefore, should treat it?

Doctors will treat FSD with Viagra (which increases blood flow into the female genitalia) and the male hormone testosterone. While it sounds antithetical to increase a woman’s libido with a male hormone, that is how the female sex drive is fueled. The FDA hasn’t actually approved any specific treatments for FSD. And in addition to Viagra (pink pills specifically for women) and testosterone, there are plenty of herbal supplements being hawked on the internet to increase a woman’s libido and self-treat FSD. One of the popular ingredients in these supplements is similar on a molecular level to testosterone. Some supplements also contain ginseng, a historically noted sexual enhancement herb. Another popular treatment is L-Arginine cream, an amino-acid based cream which women are supposed to rub on their clitorises to increase clitoral blood flow (it relaxes the capillaries) which is then supposed to make women with FSD experience orgasms or women without FSD to become even more orgasmic.

Despite therapy, medical treatment by prescription drugs, supplements and various self-treatments including Kegel exercises for the vagina, there isn’t any proof that any of the treatments will cure FSD. And time will tell if the FDA approves any treatments for FSD.