http://www.sharonlnorris.com Cialis is the best way to spend a long weekend! Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:57:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.sharonlnorris.com/about-history-of-ed.html http://www.sharonlnorris.com/about-history-of-ed.html#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:57:31 +0000 admin http://www.sharonlnorris.com/?p=5 Before oral medications (such as cialis) became available, the management of erectile dysfunction was difficult. First, men wanted to know why they had problems. Despite the biases of medicine through the years that impotence was psychogenic in origin, most men knew there was more to it than that. Therefore they wanted to find out why they couldn’t get an erection. If they could only know why it happened, they reasoned, they could reverse the cause.
However, it was never that easy. Sure, it was occasionally obvious such as in cases where surgery had cut a nerve. However, recall that there are usually multiple issues causing erectile dysfunction in any given man. In chapter 6, Edward wanted to know whether his erectile dysfunction was due to smoking, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), alcohol, medications, his weight, age, or sleep apnea. He was even willing to consider the possibility that the stresses between him and his wife could be the cause, or that job and financial pressures were taking their toll. In short, he wanted to know which one caused the problem. Unfortunately for Edward, it was all of them.
The major problem facing Edward was finding out that the cause was multifactorial - a combination of all these issues. The result was that even if he could change one, two, or eight of these concerns, he still had reasons remaining that could prevent his recovery unless he received treatment.
When multiple issues are present, some will inevitably be reversible and some will not. Edward was able to change a few things, such as his weight, blood pressure medication, and general health. He could manage his diabetes and hypertension, but they couldn’t be cured. In fact, the medications to manage his hypertension actually contributed to his erectile dysfunction. He could stop smoking and drink responsibly. But he still couldn’t make himself younger.
Before oral medication was available, the discussion with a urologist would center around changing as many issues as we could. However, men generally didn’t like that option. In an age when people were used to going into the doctor’s office with a problem and walking out with a prescription that would fix it, no man with erectile dysfunction liked what he was being told. No matter what the cause, men couldn’t walk into the doctor’s office and leave with a prescription that would magically cure all ills. These were the dark ages of erectile dysfunction.

]]> http://www.sharonlnorris.com/about-history-of-ed.html/feed http://www.sharonlnorris.com/pfizer-to-the-rescue.html http://www.sharonlnorris.com/pfizer-to-the-rescue.html#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:53:19 +0000 admin http://www.sharonlnorris.com/?p=4 The introduction of vacuum constriction devices (see chapter 11, “The penis in a vacuum”) and intracorporeal injection therapy (chapter 13) seems like ancient history, although they actually occurred in the waning years of the twentieth century. They provided two new options that allowed men to regain erections without surgery. Unfortunately, they were still more intricate than walking into the drugstore with a prescription and out with a magic pill, so men didn’t beat the doors down. Therefore men still went to the doctor only when desperate for treatment.
The introduction of Viagra brought about a sea change in this thought process. Whereas erectile dysfunction treatments were complex prior to that time, men could suddenly ask for a prescription and take a pill later that night. It was as simple as treating a headache.
The number of men with erectile dysfunction didn’t change on that day in 1998 when Viagra was released, but the number of diagnoses given in doctors’ offices around the world sure did. Significantly, most men were treated for erectile dysfunction by urologists prior to that time. That changed immediately. Currently, 86 percent of Viagra prescriptions are written by nonurologists according to Pfizer. Most are written by primary care providers. There are around ten thousand urologists in North America, but six hundred thousand different physicians worldwide have written Viagra prescriptions. Nine Viagra tablets are prescribed every second - that’s a lot of pills. Sixteen million men have taken the medication like cialis. Things have changed.

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