Arousing Interest
Perhaps since Adam and Eve got booted out of the Garden of Eden, aphrodisiacs have intrigued us. Only recently, however, have research and writings taken aphrodisiacs from the mystical to the medical realm, giving new credence to the notion that lotions and potions can stimulate desire and enhance sexual experiences.
Throughout history, cultures around the world have concocted unique (to put it mildly) folk remedies--from oysters and rhino horn to chocolate and sugar water with a dash of semen and fingernail parings--to improve sexual performance or enjoyment.
But mainstream Western medicine has by and large shunned the study of aphrodisi-acs as serious medicine.
“Because sexuality has traditionally been viewed as a nonessential part of health and well-being, funding of research to promote healthy sexual functioning is less than that for other health issues,” says Dr. Barbara Bartlik, a researcher in the Human Sexuality Program at New York University / Cornell University Medical Center.
But the study of aphrodisiacs, it turns out, is important, says Dr. Theresa Crenshaw, a San Diego specialist in sexual medicine and human relationships.
Sexual dysfunction is a side effect of any number of pharmaceuticals, and it is one of the two most common reasons (weight gain is the other) people stop taking lifesaving medications.
Crenshaw became interested in researching aphrodisiacs two decades ago, when patients taking medications for unrelated ailments complained of sexual dysfunction. Some men taking antihypertensives complained of impotence, while both men and women taking antidepressants reported inhibited desire and orgasm / ejaculation difficulties.
All this negative response got Crenshaw thinking.
“With so many substances that could depress sexual function in one way or another, there must be ways to influence the same mechanisms favorably. And,” she says, “indeed that turned out to be so.”
Thanks to Crenshaw and other researchers, aphrodisiacs have medical viability--and are now available by prescription.
The research also laid the groundwork for Crenshaw and James P. Goldberg, a clinical research psychopharmacologist in San Diego, to write “Sexual Pharmacology: Drugs That Affect Sexual Function” (Norton, 1992). This 600-page encyclopedia lists a wide range of medications, herbs, hormones and other substances that both enhance and depress sexual performance.
Yohimbine, a bark extract, for example, has been shown to increase sexual desire and performance, especially in men with diabetic neurological impairments; Prozac and its cousins are now a standard treatment for early ejaculation; and the antidepressant Wellbutrin has been found to enhance desire in men and women.
Several medications that act as aphrodisiacs were discovered inadvertently in the late ‘60s in the treatment of such illnesses as Parkinson’s disease. Drug studies across the country were finding that male patients on L-dopa, a common medication used to control the tremors Parkinson’s patients experience, suddenly started showing more desire.
Despite the lack of funding, research has continued and recent studies have shown that male hormones--testosterone and DHEA (dehydroepiandosterone)--increase desire in menopausal women. An injection combining blood pressure medications and muscle relaxants helps men with erectile dysfunction.
Psychostimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine are helping men and women override the side effects of antidepressants, one of which is delayed orgasm.
But there’s still no magic pill, says Dr. Ellen Hollander, acting co-director of the NYU / Cornell University Medical Center’s Human Sexuality Program.
“Pharmacology is simply another tool for dealing with the organic factors in sexual dysfunction,” she says.
And to date, nothing beats natural desire or, as Hollander puts it, “the sensuous and sensual absorption in the moment with a partner.”