Sex and the New City
Jennifer and Laura Berman didn’t go looking to become torchbearers for the female sexuality movement so much as it came looking for them.
When the two sisters--one a urologist, the other a psychotherapist--set up practice together at a low-profile Boston urology clinic in 1998, their goal was to improve the treatments available for women suffering from sexual disorders.
Their timing, as it turned out, was perfect. The male impotency drug Viagra was grabbing worldwide headlines, prompting public debate for the first time about why similar effective treatments were not available for women. Within the year, more headlines: A major research study found that 43% of U.S. women experience sexual dysfunction.
Interest in women’s sexual health issues was peaking after years of inattention. In the meantime, the Bermans were gaining a reputation in Boston for their innovative work. Patients were waiting four months to get an appointment with the young and enthusiastic sisters known for their willingness to try novel therapies.
By last year, the Bermans had emerged as the female sexuality experts in the media, appearing in Newsweek and Vogue and on “Good Morning America” and “Larry King Live.” It didn’t hurt that Jennifer, 36, and Laura, 32, are attractive and photogenic.
“They have been in the right place at the right time,” says Janell Carroll, a Hartford, Conn., sex therapist who is familiar with the Bermans’ work. “There is a lot of attention being paid to female sexuality right now.”
And that attention didn’t go unnoticed at UCLA, which recruited the sisters to head up a new clinic, the Female Sexual Medicine Center, which opens later this month.
“They’re a dynamic duo,” says Dr. Shlomo Raz, a professor of urology at UCLA. “One complements the other. Their impact will not only be felt in L.A. I think they’ll have an effect on how physicians look at sexuality.”
It was Raz, a leading authority on female urology, who invited the Bermans to join UCLA in hopes of establishing a leading female sexual dysfunction clinic in sexually liberated, media-friendly Los Angeles. Jennifer, the urologist, had been working with Raz since last summer, when she left Boston to begin a one-year fellowship with the UCLA doctor.
The sisters were “impressed with how open UCLA was to our vision,” says psychotherapist Laura. It was a vision that included an environment in which the university would enthusiastically support, rather than shy away from, a research program on female sexual dysfunction. The sisters made “great strides” in their research in Boston, but, she says, that city’s more conservative climate was a detriment to securing research funds in their field.
Treating the Mind as Well as the Body
While the Boston clinic was among the first female sexuality centers in the country, UCLA hopes to take the concept much further. For example, the clinic--which is yet to be built--will be devoted to both research and treatment of a wide range of psychological, hormonal and urological conditions that interfere with sex--from relationship problems to menopause to pelvic pain. For now, the sisters are working from Raz’s office near the campus.
“As a team, they are the right combination,” says Raz. “The psychological part will be covered by Laura; Jennifer will do the medical testing. That will provide the best service.”
Launching a clinic for female sexual dysfunction in an image-conscious city like Los Angeles calls for a certain amount of brashness. Indeed, the Bermans already are wondering how to strike a balance between serious science and celebrity medicine.
Though accommodating and friendly to the media--they posed for a glamorous photo shoot in a Vogue magazine article titled “Doctors of Desire”--the sisters also fret about each television appearance and story in the press.
“There aren’t many role models,” says Laura, “for being a scientist and being on ‘Oprah.’ ”
The challenge for the Bermans will be to make good use of their fame without falling victim to it, says Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a renowned Boston sex researcher who has been a professional mentor for the sisters.
“There are blessings and curses in having significant media attention so early in their careers,” says Goldstein. “They could get so carried away with this that they lose their focus. . . . My hope is that they use the media to get patients in the office--but once those patients are in the office, they use good science to move the field along.”
The motivation behind the media appearances, and a new book, “For Women Only” (Henry Holt, 2001), is to educate women about their sexuality, the Bermans say.
“What we talk about is based on science,” says Laura. “As long as we hold to that, we should be able to keep walking the line. And I think if there is any place to walk that fine line, it’s L.A.”
That fine line between style and substance is complicated by the fact that the science of female sexual dysfunction is in its infancy. Though some new treatments are under investigation, most have not yet undergone rigorous scientific testing.
“They have opened everyone’s eyes, but this is such a new field,” says Carroll. “We don’t know what the treatment options really are. We know women’s bodies are so much more complicated than men’s.”
Carroll and some other sex therapists worry that the Bermans’ approach will favor medical solutions, such as drugs, without giving other aspects of sexual dysfunction, such as psychology, lifestyles and relationships, the attention they deserve. The UCLA clinic will be an investigational site for several new drugs for women.
“It’s kind of scary to think that we have so much research going on to look for a Viagra for women,” Carroll says. “Sexual desire is wrapped up in so many others issues. The fact that Jennifer is so involved in those studies makes me worry that they might see only out of that lens.”
But the sisters point out that Jennifer was the one who urged Laura to join her in practice to address such issues as relationships, loss of interest in sex, previous sexual abuse and other emotional and cognitive issues common to female sexual dysfunction. “I knew I needed someone with a psychological background,” says Jennifer.
The Bermans employ an array of techniques to diagnose female sexual dysfunction, including such tools as vaginal probes, ultrasound and Doppler imaging--to measure sexual response.
In a typical exam, Laura does a psychological examination and takes a sexual history. Jennifer then provides a physical examination. Most patients are then asked to sexually self-stimulate in a private exam room while instruments record physiological changes related to arousal. Such a detailed diagnostic approach is not offered in most clinics, says Carroll.
They Give Treatment a Friendly Face
The Bermans possess a kindly manner and confidence that should bode well as they explore a field of medicine that is still largely experimental and untouched by earlier sex researchers such as Alfred Kinsey, William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Their solid credentials make them perfect pitchwomen for female sexual function as a serious and legitimate health issue.
“The Bermans have brought this topic out of the closet,” Carroll says. “They try to be positive and encourage women to get the help they need.”
Sex was viewed in a positive light in the Berman family--perhaps laying the necessary groundwork for two sisters to end up in the same male-dominated field. Their father was a colon and rectal surgeon and an art lover who collected paintings and sculptures of nudes.
“Sex was normalized in our house,” says Laura. “It was an open atmosphere. Our parents were interested in our questions about sex.”
“They just weren’t interested in our partaking in it,” quips Jennifer.
Eventually, the sisters realized they were both interested in careers about sex. Laura had already earned her doctorate, specializing in sexual therapy, when Jennifer, pursuing her urology residency, became aghast at how little was known about female sexual response and decided to specialize in sex, too. They often talked on the phone, says Laura, comparing notes about what they were learning.
After the residency, Jennifer joined Goldstein at Boston University Medical Center. She urged Laura to join her in the clinic in 1998 when her younger sister, who was living in Spain, decided to end her marriage.
Now Jennifer, her husband and toddler live within a few miles of Laura and her young son in Santa Monica. In an interview, they show the typical signs of sibling give-and-take, sharing a late afternoon junk-food snack while occasionally challenging each other’s answers to questions.
Growing up and throughout their medical training, however, they say they instinctively knew what everyone else around them is just discovering.
Says Laura, “We’re a good team.”
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Drug Possibilities
The search for a women’s version of Viagra. S6
