Sex and the Skinny

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The new skinny, sex-crazed you!

Now, here's some news: Scientists are trying to craft a pill that would reduce women's appetite for food, but increase their hunger for sex. But it isn't quite time to protest -- or celebrate, whatever -- the rise of malnourished, medicated nymphomaniacs: This theoretical pill wouldn't hit the market for roughly 10 years.

The Medical Research Council's Human Reproduction Unit, which is developing this diet/sex pill in Edinburgh, Scotland, has given a trial pill to female monkeys and shrews. As a result, the animals ate roughly a third less than usual and engaged in exaggerated mating displays. The monkeys exhibited "tongue-flicking and eyebrow-raising to the males, while female shrews displayed their feelings via 'rump presentation and tail wagging,'" reports the BBC. But the shocking similarities between the mating practices of human females and our furry female friends -- c'mon, tongue wagging and rump shaking! -- are also obviously limited.

Thankfully, the BBC article gives a psychologist the last word on the pharmaceutical approach to increasing women's sex drive: "Some women have problems specific to libido," said Lesley Perman-Kerr. "But often if they go off sex, it's more to do with their relationship than their level of libido."

But who's to say bad relationships won't become medicalized, too?
-- Tracy Clark-Flory