Female Viagra boosts women's sex drive and increases pleasure - but is it safe?

While men often talk about their rampant sex drives, women can be a little more reserved about the topic.

But earlier this month, female Viagra came one step closer to helping women around the world boost their libido.

The little pink pill claims to increase sex drive AND pleasure for women.

And if the sales of Viagra, made by drugs giant Pfizer, are anything to go by it should be a best-seller.

The original erectile-boasting drug has raked in around £1.2 billion a year since it's release in 2003.

And female Viagra certainly has a big market, as many women say they often experience lack of sex-drive, particularly after childbirth.

In fact, a study of 1,500 new mothers by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia found that "almost all the couples interviewed had sex less often after having a baby".

Over the years, there have been many attempts to create a libido-boasting pill for women.

However, so far, all attempts to create one have failed.

Male impotence is often caused by problems with lack of blood flow to the genitals; Viagra works by improving blood flow.

In 2004, Pfizer tested Viagra on women. But while it did increase blood flow, it didn't increase their arousal or result in them having sex more regularly.

Another approach involved giving women the male sex hormone testosterone to boost desire.

While in some reported cases this helped, gels and patches can have unfortunate side-effects, such as body hair and other male characteristics, and there are also fears they may be linked to blood clots.

But now, the first drug for treating low sexual desire in women is set to go on sale.

Earlier this month, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted to give conditional approval to a drug called Flibanserin, which will be marketed under the brand-name Addyi.

Final approval is expected in August, which may then pave the way for it to be prescribed in the UK.

The drug is controversial, however, because is has side-effects including sleepiness, sudden drops in blood pressure and fainting.

And in the clinical trail the side-effect were drastic enough to make one in six women stop taking the medication.

The new pill doesn't actually work on the genitals. Instead it works on women's brains, caging the way they respond to 'feelgood' chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine.

The theory is that this will make women experience more pleasure during sex and therefore want more of it.

However, Janice Hiller, a consultant clinical psychologist at London's Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, says the company are ignoring the fact that women's sex drives are often determined by their emotional lives

"Women are different from men. The link between the brain and the genitals is different," she told MailOnline.

"The problem of waning sex drives for the majority of women is invariably about the quality of their relationships."

"Research has shown that if women feel belittled, ignored, taken for granted, undermined or subjected to hostility, then that will reduce or take away any sexual interest they have in their partner," she added.

So maybe you can simple boost your sex life by making your partner feel loved.

- Daily Star