THE VIRILITY SOLUTION: ON PATIENT’S STORY
Just three options to treat ED – all the efects or considerable disadvantages—were certainly better than none. But they were hardly ”piimal and imposed numerous restrictions on men.
That was the case with Frank. Back in 1989, I began to treat this forty-five-year-olds atherosclerosis, the sticky plaque that forms in the arteries, eventually clogging them and obstructing blood flow. With a cholesteroll count of 260, there was cause for concern; Frank had to be monitored to prevent heart disease. However, there was another matter as well. One of the primary indicators of atherosclerosis is a diminishing of erectile function, and I asked Frank if this was the case with him.
Initially taken aback, he blurted out, “How did you know?” And while it was, at first, difficult for him to speak about his problem, he eventually grew more comfortable as we talked.
” There are options for you,” I told him. But we were both aware that for Frank, who wasn’t in a relationship, the situation was a difficult and frustrating one. For one thing, his increasing inability to have an erection was extremely disturbing. For another, the treatment choices were so off-putting that he was concerned that they would turn away any potential partner.
The first thing Frank tried was the vacuum pump. While it reliably produced an erection and was effective, after several months he gave it up. He felt that there just wasn’t a way to successfully introduce it into a romantic setting. For him it was humiliating, and just drew attention to his physical limitations.
Then I suggested that he use tri-mix. Much less “mechanical” than the pump, he could administer the shot in the bathroom, out of sight. He tried it several times but was disappointed once again.
“Let me ask you a question,” Frank challenged me after he gave up tri-mix. “How would you like to treat an ongoing headache, one that puts a stop to your life and makes you feel miserable, with an injection in your head? What if every time your head hurt you’d have to excuse yourself and go into the bathroom to plunge medication behind your eye? How would you feel about it?”
I confessed that I wouldn’t like it at all.
“And forget about spontaneity and romance,” he continued. “I feel like a machine waiting for a fuel-up. I used to think that stopping to put on a condom was intrusive—little did I know. These treatments may work physically, but they sure as hell don’t work emotionally— either for me or for the women I’m interested in. You give me pills for my cholesterol, why can’t you do the same for my ED?”
Frank’s frustration hit me. The problem was not only in the limited options for treatment, but in their detachment from the man using them. They were, at best, solutions born of physical necessity. But no one, it seemed, was taking into consideration the emotional aspects of treatment, much less an easy-to-use, successful remedy.
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