POTENCY: MEDICAL IGNORANCE
Unfortunately, Doctors aren’t immune to the prejudices in our society, and one of the strongest of those prejudices says that older men inevitably lose their ability for an interest in sex—and they should just accept this as a sad but inevitable fact. Researchers at Oregon Health
Sciences University found that some doctors reacted to older men with sexual problems differently than they did to younger patients. Their work suggests that doctors are more likely to write off the potency problems of older men, while those of younger men are taken seriously.
This medical ignorance can be tragic. Ask Ralph, a 43-year-old co-owner of a small business. He’s been married for 17 years, and has been a diabetic for 15. He had erection problems—and doctor problems—for a long time. “You’ve got supposedly sophisticated, knowledgeable medical people who think impotence is primarily psychological. My wife’s doctor told her it was all in my head. I thought it was all in my head, I want to know why we can’t have a campaign to educate doctors.”
Initially, Ralph paid a high price for this misinformation. “Thinking it was in my head caused stress and I went through a lot of problems.” Fortunately, Ralph didn’t settle for the first information he received. He did some reading on his own, and found a doctor who was able to help him.
In addition to knowledge, the attitude of the professional helping you is important. Mason learned this the hard way. A 42-year-old government worker, he went to many different professionals for help with a long-term potency problem. “In general,” he says, “there’s a lack of knowledge. Some didn’t care. My wife and I went to a minister who said he had done impotence counseling. Well, we wanted to discuss difficulties with erection. He wanted to talk about everything else, to go all around the subject. He didn’t really want to get into impotence.”
Professionals aren’t the only source of help. Support groups, while no substitute for individual diagnosis and treatment, can provide valuable information. Local chapters of these groups are available in many areas, and more are springing up around the country.
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