Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion

by Gabrielle Stanley Blair

In the early 1990s, researchers were studying a drug called sildenafil citrate. The hope was that the drug would help prevent and/or solve heart conditions. As the study progressed, the drug showed promising results for another condition: a fix for “penile winter,” more commonly known as erectile dysfunction. The panel of decision-makers who were funding the study decided they would pursue the research for erectile dysfunction. Eventually the drug came to market. It was called Viagra. In subsequent tests for the same drug, sildenafil citrate, they discovered that it also offered significant and lasting relief for women suffering from serious period pain. That same team of decision-makers, all of whom were men, decided against pursuing research on menstrual cramp relief. Why? They believed that cramps were not a public health priority.