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Egypt has become the first Arab country to authorize the production and sale of a drug intended to increase female libido.
Sally Nabil, BBC correspondent, seeks to find out if there is a market for the drug in such a socially conservative country.
"I was sleepy and dizzy, and my heart was pounding."
The use of this drug was first authorized in the United States almost three years ago and is now manufactured in Egypt by a local pharmaceutical company.
Leila is a conservative housewife in her thirties. She prefers not to reveal her identity, as other women do, because talking about badual problems and needs is still taboo in Egypt.
After nearly 10 years of marriage, she declares that she has decided to take the medicine "out of curiosity".
Leila, who has no health problem, bought the drug without a prescription – a very common practice in Egypt, where people can buy several over-the-counter medications.
"The pharmacist told me to take a tablet every night for a few weeks and said that there would be no side effects," she says.
"My husband and I wanted to see what was coming, I tried it once and I will not do it again."
Divorce rates increase in Egypt and some local media reports are attributed to badual problems between couples.
The local manufacturer of Flibanserin says that three out of ten women in the country have low libido. But these figures are only rough estimates – it is difficult to find such statistics in the country.
"This treatment is very necessary here – it's a revolution," says Ashraf Al Maraghy, representative of the company.
Pharmacists selling the drug in Cairo say sales have so far been promising
Maraghy says the drug is safe and effective and any symptoms such as dizziness and drowsiness will disappear over time – but many pharmacists and doctors disagree.
A pharmacist interviewed by the report warned that the drug could lower blood pressure to "alarming levels" and could be a problem for people with heart and liver disease.
Murad Sadiq, who runs a pharmacy in North Cairo, explains that he always explains the side effects for customers, but that they "still insist on buying" the drug.
"About 10 people a day come here to buy the drug, most of them are men, women are too shy to ask for it."
"Everything is in the head"
In Sadiq's pharmacy, I noticed an advertisement that referred to Flibanserin as a "pink pill". A female version of the "blue pill" – a term used to refer to Viagra for men.
But the manufacturer says that the term "female Viagra" is imprecise.
"The media introduced this name, it was not us," says Maraghy.
While Viagra treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood flow to the penis, flibanserin has been developed as an antidepressant and enhances badual desire by balancing the chemicals present in the brain.
Flibanserine has been dubbed the "female Viagra" term considered controversial
"Female Viagra is a misleading term," says bad therapist Heba Qotb, who refuses to prescribe it to one of her patients.
"It will never work with a woman with physical or psychological problems," she adds.
"For women, bad is an emotional process, everything starts in the head." A woman will never be able to have an intimate and healthy relationship with her husband when he mistreats her.
Qotb states that the effectiveness of flibanserin is very low and not worth the risk involved.
Leila says that she knows many "women who have filed for divorce after their badual relations have deteriorated due to tension in the marriage."
"Reducing blood pressure is a very serious side effect," he warns.
Egyptian women still have a long way to go before they feel comfortable talking about their badual needs.
"If your husband is badually weak, you will support him and help him get treatment, as long as he is a loving partner, but if you have a violent husband, you will definitely lose all interest. for him, even if he's good in bed. Men do not seem to understand that. "
Although it is still early, the director of pharmacy, Sadiq, says that Flibanserin sales have been very promising so far and believe they will increase.
But Qotb, the badologist, is very concerned about the possible consequences on marriages.
"When a man finds no improvement in his wife's badual drive, even if she has taken the drugs, he blames her – instead of blaming the ineffective medication or the relationship that they maintain as an excuse to finish. "
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