In Search Of A Libido Fix

“An orgasm used to be thunder and lightning, and now it’s only the pitter-patter of rain — and I’m waiting outside with my umbrella, and waiting and waiting and waiting.” That, according to Dr. Michael L. Krychman, a gynecologist in Newport Beach, Calif., who specializes in sexual medicine, is the complaint of a great many middle-aged women. And that, Abby Ellin reports in the New York Times, is why an “intimate lifestyle” company called LELO plans to offer 24 new products, including nipple masks, nipple spray, and “anti-aging and cellular renewal cream” for the vagina, clitoris and nipples and the skin around the inner thighs this month.  It’s also why K-Y Intense, a female arousal gel that claims to heighten clitoral sensitivity, is sold in Walmart, Walgreen and Rite Aid, and why Sensuva’s O can be found in 640 GNC stores nationwide, and on and on and on, while women wait for thunder and the men who sell these products go to the bank. Do these products work? The results, writes Ellin, are unclear, although a randomized study reported in 2010 in The Journal of Marital and Family Therapy found that women using Zestra oil reported significantly more desire, arousal and satisfaction than those given a placebo. What is clear, says Bat Sheva Marcus, clinical director of the Medical Center for Female Sexuality in Manhattan, is that “there’s no harm in trying.” Read more in the New York Times.