Director of the Women's Midlife Services at Holland Hospital
Holland, MI
Dr. Barb DePree, a gynecologist in practice for over 30 years, specializes in midlife women's health. She is certified through the North American Menopause Society as a provider, and was named the 2013 NAMS Certified Menopause Provider of the year. Dr. DePree currently serves as the director of the Women’s Midlife Services at Holland Hospital, Holland, Michigan. In 2018, she completed a certification in Genetic Cancer Risk Assessment.
A member of NAMS, ACOG and ISSWSH, Dr. DePree has been a presenter for the ACOG CME audio program. She has served as a key opinion leader for Shionogi, AMAG, Duchesnay, Valeant, Wyeth and Astellas leading physician education, and participating in research projects and advisory panels.
Finding that products helpful to her patients’ sexual health were not readily available, Dr. DePree founded MiddlesexMD.com that shares practice-tested, clinically sound information and products, including guidance for working with partners and caregivers. Dr. DePree publishes regularly on her own blog, providing updates on research in women’s sexual health, as well as observations and advice based on her work with women in her practice. Sharecare named her as a Top 10 Social Healthmaker for Menopause in September of 2013. In 2017, she was named among the “Top 10 Best Menopause Blogs” by Medical News Today. Dr. DePree also publishes podcast interviews on women in midlife, exploring the ways they have made the transition in their lives and careers.
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A few years ago, I shared that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved flibanserin, the first available treatment for women experiencing hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), low sexual desire that can't be attributed to external circumstances like medical conditions or relationship difficulties. I said then that it made me optimistic that additional treatments would be developed.
I'm happy to say that my optimism wasn't unfounded. The FDA is reviewing another treatment for HSSD called bremalanotide, which is self-administered through a disposable auto-injector. While it's not a "pink Viagra," it is designed to be used right before a sexual encounter, rather than on a daily basis, like the tablet flibanserin. HSDD results from an imbalance in chemicals, and bremalanotide works by changing the balance between "inhibitory and excitatory neural pathways in the brain," according to its maker, AMAG Pharmaceuticals.
It could be approved early in 2019, and that would be good news for the estimated 6 million pre-menopausal women who have HSDD—about one in 10 (and for postmenopausal women, too, but the study didn't include them). As with flibanserin, sold under the brand name Addyi, this new drug is likely to be explicitly approved for the population included in the study. Most of those women likely don't realize that what they are experiencing has a name, and that it's now treatable. Instead, they may believe they have to accept low libido as part of "middle age."
Learn more about sex after menopause.
It's true that it's normal for desire and sex drive to fluctuate. Each of us decides what's right for us and our partners. But if what you thought was a passing dip in desire lasts for longer than six months or so, then talk to a health care professional. It could be HSDD—and soon there may be one more way of treating it!
