This is an archive of the Selling Sickness 2013 conference, held in Washington DC in February 2013. It is preserved as a record and is no longer updated.

Selling Sickness 2013 — People Before Profits

"YOUR VOICE, YOUR WISH" - A NEW MARKETING SCAM ABOUT WOMEN'S SEXUALITY

Following the FDA's 2010 rejection of flibanserin, the ineffective and possibly dangerous CNS drug proposed for "female sexual dysfunction (FSD)" and the 2nd FSD drug to fail at the FDA, the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH) issued a press release (opens in a new tab) on Valentine's Day in 2011  to insist in every possible way that "Female sexual disorders are valid conditions" and that we should support more medical treatments.  (opens in a new tab)
Two Valentine's Days later - February, 2013 - ISSWSH has updated its campaign with an even more bare-faced self-serving appeal:
ISSWSH, an organization funded by an ever-changing list of pharmaceutical companies, was founded in 2001, in the wake of the blockbuster debut of Viagra, to seize a leading role for urologists in defining women's sexual problems. They headline their new website (opens in a new tab) with the absurd and inflated claim that "43% of women suffer from some sort of sexual dysfunction" and cite only a 1999 JAMA paper which has been recanted by its lead author and cited repeatedly as a leading example of flagrant conflicts of interest (cf Moynihan and Mintzes, 2010, Sex, Lies, and Pharmaceuticals).
"Your Voice, Your Wish" claims to know what women want, sexually, and -- guess what, what they want is not better sex education, not safer contraception, not better sex partners, not less sexual violence, not less sexual objectification -- not even affordable childcare so they wouldn't be so tired - but more medicine.
  • "My WISH is that my sexual health be viewed as an integral part of my overall health and well being, not a “lifestyle” choice.
  • My WISH is that women who suffer from sexual dysfunction be respectfully evaluated for the best course of treatment, whether medical or psychological, not dismissed.
  • My WISH is that, provided a therapy is safe and effective, government agencies strongly consider approval of a treatment option for women just as they have for men."
If women of the world were given 3 wishes for a better sex life, who besides brazen agents of selling sickness would say they'd choose treatments and therapies? This campaign uses the new and exciting social media opportunity of an online petition for a tired old purpose - astroturfing!
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