Women are being prescribed testosterone and Viagra when there is no evidence either will improve their sex lives, says a University of British Columbia researcher specializing in sexual health.

Lori Brotto, a psychologist and professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, said Wednesday that while there are no treatments approved by Health Canada for female sexual dysfunction, doctors are turning to ``off-label'' use of drugs approved for other conditions.

And the market seems to be there, said Brotto.

``The vast majority of women when they come for that first appointment, they will say, `Is there some kind of pill I can take for this?' So there is definitely a cultural belief that there is something biologically wrong with you and you can take this little pill and everything will be fixed. Very soon in the assessment process we realize that there's a lot more going on,'' she said.

Joy Johnson, head of the Institute of Gender and Health with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research at UBC, said perfectly healthy women often feel their sexual response is abnormal.

``They're made to feel they're not functioning appropriately, for example, because they can't have an orgasm with vaginal penetration with a penis . . . If that's the myth that we want to create and a drug company can now sell you a drug to make you think that is going to happen for you, there's a great deal of interest in that,'' she said.

Pharmaceutical companies are doing the vast majority of research in this area, mainly because they hope to make a fortune. Scientists have been less likely to seek funding for such studies, preferring to focus on high-profile diseases, according to Johnson.

But even after spending millions in the hopes of getting the elusive government stamp of approval, drug companies are coming up short.

U.S.-based Biosante Pharmaceuticals placed a big bet on LibiGel, a testosterone gel for boosting women's sexual response, yet its Phase III clinical trial results released in December couldn't make the case.

``It turns out that not only was it not more effective than the placebo group, but (in some areas) the placebo group actually did better than the testosterone group,'' said Brotto.

Biosante reportedly laid off 21 employees - about a quarter of its workforce - after the results. Its share price plummeted from $2.50 to a low of 38 cents, but has since rebounded to the $1 range as the company vows to continue work with LibiGel and a similar testosterone gel for men with low sex drives.

Worldwide sales of erectile dysfunction drugs were worth about $5 billion in 2010, according to the industry data firm IMS Health.

Female sexual dysfunction and its sister, hypoactive sexual desire disorder or HSDD (an absence of any interest in sex), were first recognized as medical disorders in the late 1990s. Critics noted that drug companies were prominent among those seeking to define the new conditions.

``The rates do appear to be higher today than they have been in earlier generations,'' said Brotto, although it's only been studied for the last 20 to 30 years.

The difficulty, she said, is ruling out all the non-physical reasons for a sexual complaint that affects a woman's life.

``Things like she's fatigued, she has false expectations, things like her partner is touching her elbow instead of the erotic parts of her body.''

Cindy Masaro, who is working on a PhD in UBC's school of nursing, is conducting an online survey of attitudes toward sex from women over the age of 25 and is still gathering data at www.datingconfidential.ca. Masaro has 200 completed surveys from across North America and hopes to get 300 more.

Part of her research seeks to find out how women view sex and whether intercourse is considered the ultimate goal.

``Penile-vaginal sex is the focus of the medical industry in selling medication and trying to convince women that they have to have an orgasm (that way) in order to be satisfied,'' she said.

``I'm looking at . . . what are the motivations of women over 25 in terms of having sex, and is that one of the motivations? Because if it is, it puts them at more risk (of sexually transmitted diseases).''