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Current and future pharmacotherapy for female sexual dysfunction

Nature Reviews Urology (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is common and affects women of all ages. Between 30% and 50% of sexually active women will encounter some type of FSD at some point in their life, highlighting its importance as a public health issue. FSD goes undiagnosed and untreated in many women owing to the stigma associated with sexual health, insufficient awareness and restricted access to specialized medical care. Over the past few decades, considerable progress in understanding FSD has resulted in the development of pharmacological therapies; the treatment of FSD should be evaluated through a biopsychosocial approach to determine whether to use medication, therapy or a mix of both methods. A number of non-hormonal pharmacological treatments for FSD are available, specifically to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder, female sexual arousal disorder, female orgasmic disorder and female genitopelvic pain disorders. Further work towards the development of future therapies will help to better support women with FSD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sexual Medicine, Flare-Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Yacov Reisman

  2. Ishi Clinic, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yacov Reisman

  3. Department of Urology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Alexandra Dubinskaya

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel

    Anna Padoa

  5. Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Anna Padoa

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  1. Yacov Reisman
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  2. Alexandra Dubinskaya
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The authors contributed equally to researching data for the article, discussion of the content and writing the article. Y.R. reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Y.R. acts as an adviser for Freya Pharma, Ohhmed Medical and Androlab. He also declares he is a speaker forIBSA, Boston Scientific and Ipsen. A.P. declares speaker honoraria from Novo Nordisk and Dexcel Pharma, and study funding and travel support from Hikkonu and Direx Group, and also serves on the advisory board for Tiki100. A.D. is a medical adviser for Sensera.

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Reisman, Y., Dubinskaya, A. & Padoa, A. Current and future pharmacotherapy for female sexual dysfunction. Nat Rev Urol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-025-01076-w

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