Friday, August 28, 2009

Noted for future reference

Patient Money - Treatments for Erectile Dysfunction Go Beyond a Pill - NYTimes.com

An article all about alternatives to Viagra and similar drugs, which don't always work anyway:
Even among the name-brand drugs, which also include Cialis and Levitra, the medications do not work for about half of the men with E.D.
Just getting healthier can help:
In a recent study of men with E.D., or at risk for developing it, researchers in Italy found that the men could improve their erections by losing weight, improving their diet and exercising more frequently. After two years of significant lifestyle changes, 58 percent of the men had normal erectile function, according to the study, which was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in January.
But if that still doesn't work, you can always go for the needle:
If the pills don’t work for you, you might want to try self-administered injections of alprostadil, a drug that helps blood vessels expand and facilitates erections. Granted, this may sound onerous, but the shot, which is sold under the brand names Edex and Caverject, is done with a fine needle, feels no worse than a pinprick and produces an erection that can last up to four hours, according to doctors who recommend it.
Four hours? You would kind of start worrying at the 3 hour 45 minute mark, I reckon.

1 comment:

Caz said...

Yes, a good article, now stuck with a magnet on many fridge, I imagine.

I have to confess to being a bit derisory of "erectile dysfunction", partly because the focus is, as always, on the male penis - and gawd knows we have enough of that in life - and partly because there is no such medical focus on women who suffer from similar lack of sexual fulfillment ... well, who cares if women aren't sexually fulfilled, right?

However, on reading the stark statistics, an awful lot of men, once over the age of 50, will be affected, and the loss of sexuality, or ability to express it, is no trivial thing, so I'm erring on the side of softening, and am pleased to see that men have a range of affordable options.

I still don't understand why Viagra is so stinking expensive though. Sure it helps men get erections, but only by helping blood flow, it's not like they had to invent a whole new class of drugs. Bit of a rip off, me thinks.