Functional Category
Sexual Health
Last updated
Compounds whose principal reported action is on sexual desire, arousal, or erectile function. The category spans two quite different routes: central compounds acting on the brain's arousal signalling, and peripheral ones acting on blood flow. Which route a given compound takes is recorded on the compound and is not implied by the category.
Why it matters here
Desire and mechanics are measured with different instruments, validated questionnaires for one and physiological measures for the other, so these records should be read for which outcome was actually assessed.
What it is not
Libido and erectile function are separate outcomes and neither follows from the other: a centrally acting compound may do nothing for blood flow, and a vasoactive one may do nothing for interest. This is also not the HPTA Axis category, since hormone levels and sexual function track each other loosely at best.
Also called
- libido
- sexual function
- erectile
Erectile appears in the alias list because it is a common search term. It names one outcome within the category rather than the category itself.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.