News

ISSWSH depends on its members to volunteer their time and expertise to carry out the mission of ISSWSH, and to promote and advance the field of Women’s Sexual Health. If you are looking for a new opportunity to become involved within ISSWSH and to contribute to the field of Women’s Sexual Health, serving on a committee is your chance! We are accepting applications for openings on the following committees:

ISSWSH has decided to cancel the ISSWSH Sexual Pain Course scheduled for April 17-18, 2020 in Washington D.C. in direct response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak which is now identified as a pandemic. ISSWSH is concerned for the health and safety of our faculty and attendees and recognizes that there are an increasing number of academic institutions restricting travel which affects people’s ability to attend. For more information on this cancellation and any questions you may have, please visit: https://www.isswshcourse.org/spring2020/covid-19/cancellation

ISSWSH is pleased to provide the following updates related to therapies for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder or HSDD. The FDA has updated prescribing information for flibanserin, removed the REMS certification requirement for prescribers and pharmacists, and updated safety information related to the alcohol contraindication. In addition, bremelanotide has now been approved for treatment of HSDD. Please see the attached news release related to these two therapies for more specific information and references.

News Release

At the 2020 Annual Business Meeting, ISSWSH welcomed Dr. Noel N. Kim, PhD, IF, Senior Investigator at the Institute for Sexual Medicine in San Diego and associate editor of Sexual Medicine Reviews (SMR), as its new president for a two-year term 2020-2022. He previously served as the Assistant Director of the Laboratory for Sexual Medicine Research at the Boston University School of Medicine and was a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Sexual Medicine for the first decade of the journal through 2014. From 2007, Dr. Kim served for 5 years as Chief Scientific Officer of Alagin Research, a biotechnology company devoted to developing therapeutics and diagnostics in sexual medicine. Dr. Kim continues to serve as a consultant to other companies developing therapies for sexual dysfunction. Dr. Kim most recently served as the society’s President-Elect, and Treasurer before that.

A recently published health report on HSDD treatments was poorly researched, contained elements of bias, and perpetuated inaccuracies about the condition.

We, the Executive Committee of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (www.isswsh.org) write this response to an article published on May 8, 2019 on CNN Health entitled “Drug Campaign Touts 'Female Viagra' in the Name of Equality” by Rachel Bluth of Kaiser Health News (https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/08/health/women-libido-addyi-partner/index.html).  As a scientific and medical society dedicated to supporting research, education, and clinical care for women’s sexual health, ISSWSH encourages informed discussion on disease states impacting sexual health.  We also understand that there may be valid critiques of how some pharmaceutical companies conduct their marketing campaigns.  Nevertheless, we found the article in question to be poorly researched and especially biased.