For too long, women’s sexual health hasn’t been treated as the priority it should be.
But 2025 brought several major wins in terms of pelvic and sexual health that greatly impact midlife women. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to new treatments for STIs and low desire, while a research center dedicated to filling in gaps in knowledge of endometriosis opened.
Plus, we’ve only learned more about how to combat the dip in libido and desire that often manifests as a symptom of perimenopause and menopause.
Need to catch up? Here’s a round up of seven major pelvic and sexual health wins Flow Space covered in 2025.
For many years, postmenopausal women didn’t have pharmacological options to treat low desire, a common and disruptive symptom of menopause.
But in December, the FDA granted approval for Addyi (flibanserin), a drug that treats hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women under 65. It had previously only been approved for premenopausal women.
Cindy Eckert, founder and CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals and the subject of the recent documentary The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs & Who Has Control, has been at the forefront of this fight. Flow Space spoke with her about what the approval of Addyi means for women.
Read our full coverage of this story here.
Since 1998, men who suffered with arousal issues could turn to Viagra but women didn’t have an equivalent. That ended this year when a biotech company dedicated to women’s health, Daré Bioscience, launched DARE to PLAY, a cream specifically formulated for women’s desire.
The prescription cream contains sildenafil, the same active ingredient as Viagra. It’s applied topically and works by increasing blood flow to the vulva and clitoris.
Sabrina Johnson, CEO of Daré Bioscience, spoke with Flow Space about the product and how it’ll help close the gender desire gap.
“Men were very loud about the fact that it was so critical to their sexual function and sexual activity to be able to have an erection. With women, it has been viewed as more complicated … but it’s not,” Johnson said. “It’s really not that much more complicated. There’s desire [and] there’s arousal, just like in men.”
Read our full coverage of this story here.
In recent years, experts have expressed alarm at climbing rates of sexually transmitted infections among older U.S. adults. For gonorrhea, which is the second most common STI in the U.S., one reason behind the increase is thought to be the disease’s ability to mutate and form resistance to existing treatments.
In December, the FDA approved two new oral treatments for gonorrhea for the first time in decades. The federal agency approved Nuzolvence (zoliflodacin) and Blujepa (gepotidacin), which are both taken orally.
Experts told Flow Space that these approvals are major shots across the bow in the fight against increasing STI rates. The approvals are a “major and much-needed step forward, especially at a time when antibiotic resistance has been steadily narrowing our [treatment] options,” Dr. Maral Malekzadeh, a board certified OB-GYN and co-owner of The Well Westlake, told Flow Space.
Read our full coverage of this story here.
About 10% of women worldwide have endometriosis, a condition associated with pelvic pain and complications from uterine tissue that grows outside the uterus. But despite its prevalence, for too many years research funding into endometriosis has lagged.
This year, the first major endometriosis research center in the U.S. opened: the Seckin Endometriosis Research Center for Women’s Health at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, N.Y.
The center is focused on conducting genetic research to create a clearer path to endometriosis diagnosis.
Read our full coverage of this story here.
There’s a supplement for pretty much everything, including libido. This year, Flow Space looked into what makes an effective libido supplement or medication and spoke with experts to figure out what on the market actually works.
While you’re here, check out columnist Alysia Reiner’s ode to natural arousal supplements.
Read our full coverage of this story here.
The FDA was on a roll this year when it came to approving drugs that benefit women’s sexual health. This comes amidst a rise in STIs among adults 50 and up.
The federal agency authorized two at-home STI tests this year: an over-the-counter Visby Medical Women’s Sexual Health Test to diagnose gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis in March, plus the First to Know Syphilis Test in August.
Read our full coverage of this story here.
This September, Flow Space sat down with Emily Morse, sexual wellness expert and “Sex with Emily” podcast host, to pick her brain for her best sex tips for women in midlife.
Morse mentioned that sex often suffers because partners can’t or don’t communicate their desires, so she offered three helpful, concrete steps to tackle conversations about sex: timing, tone and “turf.”
Read our full coverage of this story here.
Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
