It smells like sex, baby

Ever since Viagra revolutionised male sexual performance, researchers have been struggling to find an equivalent for women. They have now succeeded.

Ever since Viagra revolutionised male sexual performance, researchers have been struggling to find an equivalent for women. They have now succeeded.

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The world’s first ‘lust drug’ for women, PT-141, has been developed by scientists at Concordia University, Montreal, and Palatin Technologies. It is an odorous, colourless chemical, which claims to dramatically increase a woman’s sexual desire. It’s simple to use too -- just inhale it and wait for the sparks to fly.

If there was any doubt that sex for women is more between the ears than between the legs, PT-141 dispels it effectively. The drug works by targeting the female arousal centre in the brain rather than stimulating blood flow to the genitals like Viagra. Michael Perelman, co-director of the Human Sexuality Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital and an advisor on the PT-141 trials, confirms this by saying that the spray might affect how “we think and feel.”

The potential of PT-141 is huge, given that almost 40 per cent of women are said to suffer from a lack of libido. Also, there is a feeling that scientists, mostly men, ignore women’s sexual problems. In fact, say pharmaceutical industry sources, if PT-141 — which could be on chemist counters in three years — proves what is being claimed, it could even outsell Viagra.

In the trials conducted so far, 16 women were given PT-141 while 16 others were given a placebo. The latter hardly reacted, while those on PT-141 reported tingling and throbbing and a strong desire to have sex.