Female Viagra 'Flibanserin': All your want to know - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the world's first drug designed to arouse a woman's declining desire for sex, a condition that affects an estimated one in ten U.S. women.

The approval of the drug, flibanserin, which the FDA twice rejected before, will now be marketed as Addyi, comes with a series of conditions reflecting the agency's concerns about serious side effects.

One of those side effects is that some women might not take as seriously as they need to: you cannot drink alcohol while taking Addyi - and it's designed to be taken daily on a regular basis, not just when you want to want sex. That means total abstinence from alcohol. Since alcohol can be a good libido enhancer for women, how many are going to trade one for the other?

The FDA said that it can cause a drop in blood pressure and fainting and healthcare professionals must evaluate the likelihood of the patient reliably abstaining from alcohol before prescribing Addyi.

The US agency is requiring both pharmacists and doctors to undergo an online certification process

before being allowed to prescribe the drug, and the drug maker should conduct 3 additional studies on the interaction of Addyi with alcohol.

Dr. Karen E. Adams, clinical professor of OBGYN and Director of the Midlife Women's Clinic at Oregon Health and Science University, who has been following the drug's development, said the FDA has been careful to look for proof of safety and effectiveness. This is the third time flibanserin has come to FDA, and it was with a new pharma company that partnered with a PR campaign by an organization named "Even the Score," which brought politics into the entire FDA approval process.

Adams further added that a 1999 study in JAMA found that 43 percent of women and 31 percent of men complained of some form of sexual dysfunction. It is very distressing for women, and the FDA has approved the drug specifically for "a lack of sexual desire that causes distress to the woman or in her relationship."

Viagra works 100 percent of time for men but only one in 10 women is going to benefit from flibanserin, so it is less effective than Viagra. Moreover, Viagra works by increasing blood flow to the penis, while flibanserin works on neurotransmitters in the brain, almost like antidepressants, Adams added.

During the trials, it was found that women at baseline were having 2.7 "sexually satisfying events" per month. Sexually satisfying events were delineated as "intercourse, manual sex, oral sex, or masturbation, with or without orgasm." Women taking the placebo went to 3.7 events per month, and women taking flibanserin went to 4.5 per month. Hence, women are getting not quite one whole additional "sexually satisfying event" - potentially without orgasm - than on placebo.