ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997 TAG: 9704080054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Scientist have discovered a brain chemical in rats that affects genital stimulation but no such chemical has been found in people.
Rutgers university sex researchers scrambled Monday to correct what they said was a misleading report that implied their work could lead to a pill for female orgasms.
``That's just somebody's fantasy,'' said Beverly Whipple, who has been conducting research on female sexuality since the 1970s.
The report, widely circulated by The Associated Press on Monday, said that Whipple and another Rutgers professor, Barry R. Komisaruk, had isolated a chemical that produces orgasms in women, even if they've been paralyzed.
The report also said that the findings of the Rutgers researchers could one day lead to a pill that could provide the same kind of sensation as an orgasm and that it might also be useful in treating pain.
``I have been putting out fires all day,'' she said in a telephone interview. ``I had a press conference today with 15 TV stations here just saying, `I don't know what happened but this is not accurate.'''
Whipple said that the Rutgers research team had discovered a brain chemical in rats, called the vaso-active intestinal peptide, which appears to be involved in genital stimulation. The brain chemical does not use the spinal cord, but, instead, acts through a nerve pathway in the front of the body that travels from the genital area to the brain.
No such chemical has yet been found in humans, Whipple said. Researchers also reported last year that women paralyzed from the chest down could achieve orgasm through self-stimulation, something that was thought to be impossible.
``Somebody took the studies that we have been conducting in laboratory animals and with paralyzed women and came up with this conclusion (about an orgasm pill) that we had nothing to do with,'' Whipple said.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB