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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