Erectile Dysfunction

Its study predicts that this market will continue to rise as a result of an aging population and a growth in obesity.

Dr John Tomlinson, director of the SDA, said that as well as physical problems, very often the most common causes of ED among young men were first time nerves with a new partner, anxiety over the problem occurring again and stress caused by work and lack of sleep.

"It's extraordinarily common," he said.

"It's just a matter of reassuring people.

Very often one tablet of one of these PDE5 inhibitors [such as Viagra] will give them the confidence to go on." But Dr John Tomlinson added that as men get older the problem tends to be a result of physical causes.

"Among the fifty five-plus, [ED] would tend to be a combination of stress and also physical problems.

Because once you know there's a physical problem you get very anxious, start worrying about it and making it worse." © 2007 Advertise Terms of Use ...

Its study predicts that this market will continue to rise as a result of an ageing population and a growth in obesity.

Geoff Barlow, a sexual performance coach associated with SMS said that taking action is "very important".

"Fear, anxiety, worry, stress – these all produce adrenaline," he added.

"If you like it's a Catch-22: the man's worried about losing his erection, so he becomes anxious and produces adrenaline which relaxes the valves at the base of the penis and the blood drains out… That's why stress is such a problem for men getting an erection, it's the biochemical aspect of it." Mr Barlow added that as well as targeting causes of stress, men with ED should always see their GP as in just under half of all cases are due to underlying health problems.

"If you can't get an erection under any circumstances, then definitely you should see a GP to find out what the cause is," he said.

"If you can get an erection under other circumstances but it fails when you're with your girlfriend, then there's a chance that it is stress related." © 2007 Advertise Terms of Use ...

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