Introduction: Approximately 40 million people in the United States are currently taking herbal supplements. Therefore, it is not surprising that many women have chosen to pursue herbal therapies for their low sexual desire, especially given the lack of FDA-approved medications. Objective: To review the neurobiology of sexual desire, based on functional MRI (fMRI) research, and apply these findings to the use of herbal therapy for low sexual desire disorder from a gynecologic perspective. Methods/Results: Sexual health data, gathered from fMRI studies, reveals activation in areas of the brain responsible for dopamine and norepinephrine production, the hormones most commonly associated with sexual desire and arousal. Several herbal therapies, including ArginMax and Avlimil, have proven effective in the treatment of this disorder in randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Conclusions: Based on observations from fMRI research and the efficacy of certain herbal therapies on low sexual desire disorder, it is our hypothesis that herbal therapy targets these neural circuits in the brain. Therefore, herbal treatments are a reasonable therapeutic option and their application to a gynecologic practice will be discussed in this presentation. However, further prospective research is warranted in this area.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: Pfizer
Sydney, Australia, April 2007
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