Raise your hand if you’ve seen the ads on television for Viagra.
Yeah, I thought so—you all have your hands up in the air.
I tell you, if I have to sit through one more of those commercials with the coy references to “the little blue pill” and that slyly grinning man who apparently got lucky last night, and the dire warnings that you’ll need to go to an emergency room if you end up with a 4-hour erection, I’m going to scream. And it doesn’t help that they run those ads seemingly non-stop during basketball and football games, when there are probably young kids in the room.
Don’t get me wrong—I know that sex is important. In a loving relationship, sex is a beautiful, wonderful thing, and everyone deserves to have a great sex life.
What bothers me is when something happens to a man that affects his ability to have sex, he is diagnosed with “erectile dysfunction”. But when something happens to a woman and her sex life is impacted, she is told she has the more generic-sounding “sexual dysfunction.” I realize the two terms are somewhat similar, but for some reason “sexual dysfunction” just sounds so much worse—like there must be something really really wrong with us or something. I mean really—whatever happened to using the term “sexual health”?
So anyway, if you are a man who is having these issues, then you can run out and get a prescription for Viagra or Cialis or Levitra (or buy them over the internet), in the hopes that they will make everything start working again. And for most men, these drugs are effective and they help in achieving and maintaining an erection.
Actually, in some cases, Viagra is a woman’s worst nightmare, because while the hubby now has something to take for his sexual health, she doesn’t have anything to take for hers.
I think that’s probably what bothers me the most—there are currently no medications on the market that are meant to help us with our sexual health. I mean really—with all of those silly ads for Viagra, you’d think we might see just one commercial for a drug we can take. But so far, nada.
I’d love to know what your thoughts are on this issue. Are you dealing with “sexual dysfunction” yourself? If so, what, if anything, have you done to help it? Are you dealing with a partner who is on Viagra is and feeling like a 20 year old again? Has this been challenging for you to deal with? I look forward to hearing from you!
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If you really need taking pills I advise trying Extagen, because it is natural and absolutely safe. It works much more effective than Viagra on me.
August 31, 2009 - 12:14pmThis Comment
Susan, I agree!
I'm not sure how many times I've been to the doctor, or my nurse practitioner, and they ask all kinds of personal questions, so they can check a box on their form (relationship status, drug use, date of last period, etc), then they perform a physical exam (most personal of all!), but then...there is a severe lack of discussion about what all of these have to do with each other (the relationship status question and the physical exam).
The connection is, you, the patient, are in a relationship, you are a sexual being; yet, there is no discussion about sexuality. I'm not talking about a counseling session, but a little more discussion about the relationship itself, even current research or resources, would be helpful.
This is a little personal, but I remember as a young woman that I went in to the GYN for my first-ever appointment, obtained birth control (I had my first "serious" boyfriend), and the doctor NEVER talked to me about being in a sexual relationship. Probably mentioned that we should use condoms to protect against STIs. What a perfect (missed) opportunity for her to talk with me about what I'm possibly feeling in this serious relationship, where to go for help if I need it, what the difference is between a healthy vs. unhealthy/abusive relationship. And on and on. I would hope that doctors now are asking the young women more about their relationships, how they feel about their bodies, etc.
March 22, 2008 - 12:50pmThis Comment