Edinburgh: Earlier research by Scottish scientists indicates that it may be possible to create a combo pill that increases a woman’s sex drive at the same time as supressing appetite.

So far the pill has only been tested on animals – shrews and monkeys, but the results so far indicate that the pill could go on sale within ten years.

Professor Robert Millar, director of the Human Reproductive Sciences Unit at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh, said they discovered the double benefit while developing a hormone to treat loss of libido, a problem which affects millions of women.

He noted that the animals in the test demonstrated an increased desire for sex at the same time they were less interested in food.

Female musk shrews and marmosets were injected with the Type 2 Gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which provoked an mating response towards their males.

In the shrews, this was shown by ‘rump presentation and tail wagging’, while the monkeys began ‘tongue flicking and eyebrow raising’ said the scientist. The animals cut their food intake by up to a third.

Type 2 Gonadotropin-releasing hormone is distributed to parts of the brain that scientists believe may affect reproductive behaviour.

Professor Millar believes that the results indicate the hormone could be useful in treating both low libido and obesity at the same time. He is now working on reproducing it in the form of a pill, which could prove extremely profitable given the amount of interest pharmaceutical companies have shown in enhancing libido.