Is sexual desire a medical issue? An experimental drug for women revives an intense debate

Cancer therapies should shrink tumors. Diabetes treatments ought to lower blood sugar. But what should society expect from drugs for sexual desire?

In the coming days, the Food and Drug Administration will decide whether to approve an injection meant to increase women’s drive for sex. Its demonstrated effects are modest, but some doctors say the drug would meet a real need for thousands of women. Others, however, argue it is simply pharmaceutical overreach, another effort that reduces the complexity of human sexuality to a set of measurable dots on a chart.

“It’s a mismatch of models,” said Leonore Tiefer, a sex therapist who previously ran the sex and gender clinic at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center. “They want the car repair model: ‘Hello, doctor, I’ve got this carburetor