About 10 years ago, a handful of researchers began touting the virtues of testosterone for women who couldn't get their sex drive out of neutral.
They presented data that included personal experiences with the reproductive hormone more commonly associated with men, published best-selling books for women over 40 and, in perhaps the biggest coup of all, snagged an appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show.
Whether the movement has been good for women, however, is a matter of passionate debate among some of the most respected researchers in the field. And while that debate has ebbed and flowed, dozens of products for men have appeared on the market.
Years of industry-sponsored research still has not produced any approved treatments for this common sexual disorder in women, although many consider testosterone a missing ingredient - if not the key ingredient - in lost libido.
Why has it been so difficult for researchers to capture the magic capable of making women still long for sex after a long day at the office, shuttling children back and forth to soccer matches or arguing with their partners about who cleans the bathroom?
Men got lucky with Viagra.
Meanwhile, women have been wooed by one fickle or unsatisfying treatment after another.
The most promising suitor in the pharmaceutical industry pipeline was the testosterone patch, now available in Europe but in limbo here because of regulatory concerns.
Meanwhile, New Jersey-based Pfizer, maker of Viagra, found its little blue pill did little to improve arousal and desire in 3,000 women.
Sheryl Kingsberg, a psychologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, has researched the testosterone patch for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble for several years. Results in about 1,000 surgically menopausal women were mixed, then the company withdrew its application for Food and Drug Administration approval after concerns were raised about the lack of long-term safety data.
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