The documentary “The Pink Pill” sheds light on the ongoing battle to make the so-called “female Viagra” accessible, exposing a medical industry that continues to undervalue women’s health needs.
Barbara Gattuso, who had been happily married for decades, enrolled in a clinical trial in the late 2000s for a potentially groundbreaking new medication. She and her husband had shared a fulfilling sex life, both before and after having children. Yet, at some point during her perimenopausal years, her desire mysteriously disappeared. It wasn’t attributable to stress, fatigue, or relationship issues, though her lack of libido certainly compounded those problems. Instead, she likened it to an enigmatic evaporation—as if “somebody pulled the plug,” she recounts in a new documentary exploring flibanserin, the experimental drug that offered a glimmer of hope.
Originally developed as an antidepressant by the German company Boehringer Ingelheim, flibanserin surprisingly showed promise as a treatment for diminished female libido. It operates by affecting neurotransmitters in what is often referred to as the brain’s “sex center.” In a trial video filmed by Dr. Irwin Goldstein, revered as the “godfather of sexual medicine” and a crucial consultant for Viagra—the revolutionary blue pill for male erectile dysfunction—Gattuso appears almost euphoric. She stated that she was once again playfully pursuing her husband. She felt “phenomenal,” describing herself as a “new woman on this drug,” feeling truly “plugged in.”