From the UK - HRT wives drive their men to Viagra
by Michael Jeffries
A growing number of men are being forced to ask their
doctors for Viagra on the NHS in order to keep pace with
their wives, who are keeping young on hormone
replacement therapy.
A leading consultant said today that middle-aged women
on HRT are demanding more than their husbands can give.
The result is that the men are turning to Viagra to help
them save their marriages.
The revelation comes as more than a quarter of hospital
doctors polled by the British Medical Association, said
they felt it unfair to charge patients for Viagra while the
contraceptive pill and HRT were free on the NHS.
Dr Paul Schober, a consultant in genito-urinary medicine in
Leicestershire, says in the BMA News Review journal: "A
patient pointed out to me that his need for Viagra was
produced by the new lease of life given to his wife by
hormone replacement therapy.
"He argued that if women could be prescribed treatment
to improve their sex lives, why not men?
"His impotence threatened his relationship and single, older
men do not live as long as those in good relationships, so
his future health was at risk," he says. Dr Schober was one
of 26 per cent of hospital doctors taking part in a BMA
survey who felt it was unfair to charge patients for Viagra
while the Pill was free on the NHS.
Dr David Pickersgill, from Norfolk, said: "To describe
Viagra, as some have, as a recreational drug is not only
incorrect, but over-looks the huge amount of prescribing
which currently goes on for drugs whose use may similarly
be described as, at least in part, recreational.
"Examples would include the prescription of the
contraceptive pill or a prescription of HRT for women
who complain of decreasing libido in their middle years."
© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 09 October 1998
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