--- title: What You'll Have to Pay for 'Female Viagra' description: Addyi should cost about as much as Viagra, as long as insurers cover it. authors: - name: Kara Brandeisky url: https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 76 covers: - Shopping - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/karabrandeisky former_staff: true published: '2015-08-19T17:07:01.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T06:35:28.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - Drugs - Health Care - prescriptions - Sex word_count: 287 canonical: https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A tablet of flibanserin female viagra](https://img.money.com/2015/08/150819_ff_femviagra.jpg?crop=154px%2C236px%2C1725px%2C970px&quality=85) *A tablet of flibanserin* On Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration approved Addyi, the first sexual dysfunction drug for women. Questions remain about [the drug's side effects and risks](https://time.com/4001475/filbanserin-female-viagra-approved/). But if it works well, will it be affordable for most women? [Sprout CEO Cindy Whitehead said](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/business/fda-approval-addyi-female-viagra.html) that while the cost of Addyi has not been finalized, it should be priced similarly to a month of Viagra pills*.* GoodRx, a drug cost comparison site, found that the average fair cash price for Viagra is [around $400](http://www.goodrx.com/pde5-inhibitors) a month. However, Whitehead expected that patients with insurance coverage would only need to pay about $30 to $75 a month in copays. That's the amount most Americans currently pay for non-generic prescription drugs. Virtually all job-based health plans have prescription drug benefits with a "formulary," or a list of which drugs are covered and which are not. Most drug formularies have more than one tier, which means that some drugs require a higher co-pay or co-insurance rate than others, according to the [Kaiser Family Foundation](http://kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2014-section-nine-prescription-drug-benefits/). For formularies with just two tiers, the average co-pay for first-tier drugs like generics is just $11, while more specialized second-tier drugs go up to $30. On plans with four or more pricing levels, the most expensive average co-pay is $80. That said, it's not yet known whether all insurers will cover Addyi. For men seeking erectile-dysfunction medication, some insurers require evidence of a documented medical condition or refuse to cover certain drugs, according to the [Cleveland Clinic](http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases_conditions/hic_Erectile_Dysfunction_Overview). For instance, starting next year, CVS/Caremark [will remove Viagra and Levitra from its formulary](http://www.cvshealth.com/sites/default/files/FDR0116_31140_fmt_sec.pdf) (though Cialis will still be available). Plus, those over 65 are often out of luck: By law, Medicare Part D is [prohibited from paying for erectile dysfunction drugs](http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/no-sex-please-were-on-medicare/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Shopping", "item": "https://money.com/shopping/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Health Products", "item": "https://money.com/health-products/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What You'll Have to Pay for 'Female Viagra'" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/", "name": "What You'll Have to Pay for 'Female Viagra'", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-08-19T17:07:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:35:28.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "What You'll Have to Pay for 'Female Viagra'", "articleSection": "Shopping", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/08/150819_ff_femviagra.jpg?crop=154px%2C236px%2C1725px%2C970px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150819_FF_FemViagra" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kara Brandeisky", "url": "https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2015/01/150107_bio_author_brandeisky_011.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "kara.brandeisky@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/karabrandeisky" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-08-19T17:07:01.000Z", "description": "Addyi should cost about as much as Viagra, as long as insurers cover it.", "abstract": "Addyi should cost about as much as Viagra, as long as insurers cover it.", "@id": "https://money.com/female-viagra-cost/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:35:28.000Z", "wordCount": 287, "keywords": [ "Drugs", "Health Care", "prescriptions", "Sex" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Shopping", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal care", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_care" ] } ] } ] } ```