Study Shows Erectile Dysfunction Is Dangerously Under Treated

How common do you thin erectile dysfunction is?  It can be difficult to measure, since many men are reluctant to talk to their doctors or seek treatment for their problem.  Even though the numbers can be difficult to estimate, you should know that if you have erectile dysfunction, you certainly aren’t the only person who has experienced it.  The National Institutes of Health estimate that approximately 5% of men at the age of 40 have experienced or currently have problems with erectile dysfunction.  As you age the number increased, 25% of 65 year old men experience erectile dysfunction on a long-term basis.

The numbers may be inaccurate because some people aren’t aware of what erectile dysfunction actually is.  Failure to achieve an erection less than 20% of the time isn’t unusual, in fact almost every man has experienced the inability to achieve an erection at some point in time in their life.  Most doctors diagnose people with erectile dysfunction if they fail to achieve an erection 50% or more of the time they attempt to.  Many men fail to realize that they have erectile dysfunction, and are reluctant to talk to their doctors about any problems they may be experiencing sexually.

Erectile dysfunction is much more common than people think, and a recently study shows that only about one quarter of men with the condition actually receive treatment for it.  A team of doctors and scientists from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield used a common insurance database to identify 6.2 million men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction during a 12 month period that ended in June 2011.

Men who receive a prescription for hormone replacement therapy or medication and supplements like Vydox were considered treated.  Despite the fact that the men observed in the study had been diagnosed as having erectile dysfunction, only 25.4% of the 6.2 million men received treatment for their problem.  This study was among the first of its kind, and urologists and other medical professionals were shocked by its results.

Since erectile dysfunction can be an embarrassing topic for some men to discuss many assumed that the problem was the men just weren’t being diagnosed with it.  The study shows that despite having medical confirmation from a doctor, the vast majority of people with erectile dysfunction choose to not seek treatment for it.  This shows that there needs to be a dramatic change in the way we diagnose and treat erectile dysfunction, and that the social stigma associated with it can cause some people to not seek treatment for an important and treatable medical problem.