I can’t possibly start this article without referring to one of my favorite feminist essays by Gloria Steinem, “If Men Could Menstruate.”
Steinem, the face of progressive female movements for several decades, wrote this biting piece in 1978 for Ms. Magazine.
It explores a world where we treat women’s sexual health in the same way that we treat men’s sexual health. Most notably, it illustrates how we would be dedicating more time, energy and money to researching menstruation — understanding its risk and benefits, identifying symptoms, developing products to manage and medications to mitigate it.
Whether or not we truly see the implication of it in our everyday lives, funding, and therefore effort, invested in researching women’s sexual health is far lower than that dedicated to men.
Not only are women underrepresented in biomedical studies that explore prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, but also topics that address female sexual health are poorly researched in general.
Despite an entire industry dedicated to exploring, enhancing and glorifying men’s sexual health, there has been very little work done on this front for women.
This means that we still don’t understand many of the unique, complex and variable processes involved in female sexual health.
Despite what the media implies, it is 100 percent NORMAL for women (and men, for that matter!) to experience fluctuations in our desire for intimacy, sex and pleasure.
While we know that women’s sexuality is not so simple that taking a single pill will result in arousal, we don’t yet appreciate all the multi-faceted factors that DO contribute to pleasure and libido for women.
Until recently, our research on sex and sexuality has assumed (the way that it did for all biomedical studies) that men and women’s bodies respond in the same way to external and internal stimuli.
We are finally beginning to accept that this is not the case and that female sexual health is a topic all its own … and a very valid one.
Fiera® is one of the companies in the United States currently performing research and developing products with women’s health and sexuality specifically in mind. They are beginning to utilize new understandings of the female sexual response cycle to create technology that helps women get “in the mood” when they want to be.
Fiera is scientifically proven to enhance arousal and lubrication for women. The product was built with couples in mind to help improve overall intimacy.
In the U.S., roughly 46% of all American women, aged 18-70 have a sexual concern. While sex can sometimes be difficult to talk about, it’s an important conversation to have. Fiera is encouraging women to talk about their concerns and help normalize the conversation around sex.