More support needed for erectile dysfunction says sexologist

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 3 2010

According to sexologist Bettina Arndt, there are thousands of Australian men with erectile dysfunction who are sexually impotent because of their condition and the lack of affordable treatments. Arndt said that funds distribution for breast prostheses for female cancer patients is one of the examples of mismatches in funding. Arndt said that there are nearly 20,000 new cases of erectile dysfunction in Australia each year. Many result from prostate cancer, diabetes, cholesterol problems, hypertension or depression. She said only veterans and a limited number of other male patients were eligible to receive subsidized erection drugs such as Viagra, which cost $50 to $70 for about six doses. She explained that, “A lot of men simply cannot afford these treatments. It is having enormous consequences.”

She was speaking of her new book “What men want” that is based on the diaries of 150 men who kept a record of their sex lives. She said that many men kept quiet about their ordeal making the problem worse. She said the urologists treating these patients “were not doing a very good job” of talking about the issue with patients and the public.

She said, “Why does our government treat male cancer victims so differently from women? Women with breast cancer receive substantial government funding to help with the costs of rehabilitation. Yet men with prostate cancer are given no funding for essential treatments necessary for their well-being . . . There's no logic to the differential treatment. How can male sexual needs be so cynically disregarded?”

According to Associate Professor Doug Lording, a spokesman for the male reproductive health group, Andrology Australia, many men were buying unproven treatments for erectile dysfunction that were widely advertised on the internet, but could be fatal. He said, “As medicines for 'sexual performance enhancement' have a huge market around the world, there is potential for an unsuspecting man to purchase counterfeit medicine if buying overseas or from the internet.”

The federal government ruled out including Viagra on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme list of subsidised drugs soon after its introduction in the late 1990s. It is only subsidised for veterans, who account for about 35,000 scripts a year for erection drugs at a cost of $3 million to the taxpayer.