POTENCY AS A SIDE EFFECT

March 27th, 2009 by admin in Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction

Thomas learned the importance of this, but it took a while. This tall, thin, 55-year-old businessman first developed an erection problem as a side effect of some medication he was taking. Thomas’s doctor changed his prescription, thinking that would be the end of the problem. But it wasn’t. Thomas still could not become erect. He was furious. He was convinced that the medicine had permanently damaged his sexual ability. His physician’s assurances that Thomas was, in fact, “the same man” did nothing to change his belief, quiet his rage or cure his erection problem.

A few weeks later, Thomas showed up at another clinic, extremely tense and nervous. He had difficulty talking about his problem, but gradually, with a lot of encouragement, his story emerged.

He explained that after the “failure” of his first doctor he quickly became disgusted with traditional health care. Instead, he sought out an “herb” doctor, who prescribed a potion. (Analysis of this “drug” later revealed that it contained human placenta, ginseng and ground-up animal testicles among other things.) Although Thomas had been taking this mixture faithfully every day, as instructed, he had seen no improvement. And he would have noticed any change: He was attempting intercourse compulsively at least once a day, so he would know exactly how he was doing. To bolster his efforts, he stole some time from his business to go to peep shows to see if what he watched would produce an erection. Still, no luck. The failure of the herb medicine finally drove him to seek medical help once again.

Clearly, Thomas was a rather high-strung guy, and just sharing his story seemed to defuse some of his anxiety. He confided that a major source of stress in his life was a small bakery he and his wife owned. Competition from larger outlets was fierce and the couple worked 14-hour days just to keep their business afloat.

Despite all of Thomas’s very real pressures, he had several important things in his favor: He’d only been without erections for a few weeks, so the potency problem, while painful, had not yet become ingrained in his life. He still had a good relationship with his wife, although she did not appreciate her husband’s obsessive daily attempts to have intercourse. What she didn’t like the most, Thomas confided, was watching him berate himself after each “failure.”

Thomas was a good candidate for self-help: He was healthy, eager to solve his problem and open to a new approach. And fortunately, he could count on his wife’s cooperation.

So his doctor prescribed a self-help program—one that was far removed from Thomas’s rigid and self-defeating program of daily performance tests and peep-show tours. Instead, the self-help program called for Thomas to take the pressure off. The doctor told him not to attempt sexual intercourse at all for two weeks. He was encouraged to enjoy sexual pleasure in other ways, but intercourse was off limits. And he was to share this plan with his wife, and enlist her support.

A few days later, relieved of his pressure to perform, Thomas’s erections returned. At his next clinic visit, he reported that he and his wife were again enjoying intercourse.

It was fortunate that Thomas had not shut himself off from his wife when his problem began. Some men withdraw physically and emotionally from friends, family and work because they feel somehow less than “a whole man.” If you react like this, get professional help for your potency problem, and for the stress you and your loved ones are feeling.

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