For Immediate Release
June 20, 2005
Female Sexual Dysfunction a myth, say leading sex researchers at Montreal
Conference
Montreal will play host to a controversial international conference on sex
research over the weekend of July 9 and 10 at Le Nouvel Hotel. Over two
hundred activists, health workers and academics from around the world will
discuss the effects on women's sexual health and well-being resulting from
the recent marketing initiatives of the sexuo-pharmaceutical industry.
Entitled "Women and the New Sexual Politics: Profits vs. Pleasures," the
conference will explore the impact of advertising unnecessary and possibly
unsafe drugs to millions of women worldwide. "Women need economic and
relationship safety, comprehensive sex education and reproductive health
services, not phony diagnoses and poorly researched 'lifestyle drugs',"
said Conference Organizer Dr. Leonore Tiefer of New York.
Distinguished speakers participate
Conference keynoters are Barbara Ehrenreich, social critic, speaking about
the betrayal of trust by experts' advice to women and Jean
Kilbourne, well known for exposing the deceptive premises of alcohol and
tobacco advertising. Other plenary lecturers include Jeanne Lenzer,
investigative journalist, who will outline how Big Pharma uses the media to
sway public opinion; Susan Bennett, Harvard family practitioner, who will
offer an update on women's sexual physiology; John Hoberman, Texas
historian, who will describe the history of testosterone fads; and Barbara
Huberman, who will overview sex ed programs worldwide.
Panel presentations explore women's sexualities
Exploration of women's sexual lives and real sexual problems will extend
beyond pharmaceuticals in presentations on sex trafficking, child sexual
abuse, the use of synthetic hormones to eliminate menstruation, sex and the
senior woman, genital cosmetic surgery, infertility, abstinence education
and emergency contraception politics. Saturday evening will feature the
screening of a new comedy titled "Side
Effects," based on the true story of a pharmaceutical representative turned
whistle blower.
The conference is cosponsored by over a dozen US and Canadian women's
health groups. Several of these groups testified at the December, 2004 FDA
committee hearing that rejected Intrinsa, Procter & Gamble's testosterone
patch for women. Conference Organizer Tiefer said that "The unanimous vote
against Intrinsa was a big victory for women's sexual health. The hearing
showed how Big Pharma uses marketing tactics instead of good science, but
that regulators are capable of showing backbone and integrity."
Celebrating five years of New View Campaign accomplishments
This conference celebrates five years of a grassroots educational campaign
challenging the overmedicalization of women's sexual problems. An emerging
public health social movement now features "female sexual dysfunction" as a
prime example of corporate manufacture of disease.
For full Conference details: http://www.fsd-alert.org
For media interviews contact:
Karen Hicks
Phone: 610.248.2768
Email: [log in to unmask]
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