Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a physician and researcher taking care of women for the past 30 years, I've seen many women cry in my office and say to me, "Doctor, I love my husband (or wife), I just don't understand why I have no desire to have sex." This complaint can be a very serious one and can often (believe it or not) be more disturbing to the woman than to the husband; often the woman wants to feel desire (she misses it) but just can't--she wants desire for the pleasure to her not to please her husband. Because lack of desire can be so disturbing to both the woman and to her partner, and because I've seen so many women troubled by this disorder (and Dr. Gunter correctly points out that low desire is not even considered a disorder unless the woman is mentally troubled), because the strain on relations is so strong, imagining many women following bad advice makes me sad for their continue suffering if they take this book to heart. First serious error: her statement that "levels of estrogen and testosterone do not correlate with desire and testing is not indicated" is considered out of date by most sexual medicine physicians. For example, The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH), one of the premier thought leaders in the field, published an "Expert Consensus Panel Review in the Mayo Clinic Proc. that states the following: "Menopausal women with HSDD (hyposexual desire disorder) may benefit from off-label testosterone treatment, as evidenced by multiple clinical trials..." This same society (ISSWSH) recommends testing for testosterone levels and calculating free testosterone levels--in other words, not only is testosterone testing helpful, it's needed for a complete understanding of a woman's sexual health. Second troubling error: Her statement that "medications for desire are at best moderately effective" would be just not accurate for many women who find flibanserin or testosterone to be wildly effective. There are of course many for whom medications do not work at all or work minimally; but for the women who are helped tremendously (and there are many of them), medications can be life changing. Third, and serious oversight, she never mentions hyperprolactinemia from the microadenomas of the pituitary that can cause a complete loss of sex drive in some women with the only other symptoms being perhaps fatigue. Though not extremely common, I've usually found around one person per year with this disorder and when found, by simply taking a pill twice a week (a medication) to lower her prolactin level, the woman usually will see a complete return of a very robust libido. Much of this book is useful information; I wish with her wide influence that I could endorse every page. But, I'd recommend that, if you buy the book, tear out chapter 15 and throw it away.