Canterbury, July 16 (IANS) A three-year study of the "socio-cultural implications" of Viagra and similar drugs to correct erectile dysfunction reveals that men using the prescription want too much sex.
Canterbury University researcher Annie Potts, who did the study, said the women felt Viagra was giving their sex life too much of a lift.They complained that their partners insisted on having sex - regardless of their own mood - because the men wanted to get their money's worth, she said.
Potts studied the relationship of men and women, where men aged from their mid 30s to early 70s had "erectile difficulties", reports The New Zealand Herald website www.nzherald.co.nz.
She presented some of her findings based on interviews with 27 women, aged 33 to 68, with an average age of 53 in New Zealand at a conference held recently in Canada's Montreal city titled "Women and the New Sexual Politics: Profits vs. Pleasures".
Some of the issues she raised included unwelcome changes to sexual practice, tension and conflict in communication between partners, fears about men's infidelity and concerns about adverse health effects from using Viagra.
A 48-year-old, who said Viagra made sex inevitable, said the attitude was: "I've taken the pill, OK, let's go".
And a 60-year-old, explaining the difficult adjustment to a sudden, vigorous sex life, said: "All of a sudden erectile dysfunction became the focus in the house for a while."
Some of the women said that health professionals did not consult with the female partner when treating males for erectile dysfunction.
In Potts' study, some women complained that their husbands could have multiple erections over a 24-hour period and even though the women didn't want to have sex, they felt a duty to endure it to help their partners repair their battered self-esteem.
When one 57-year-old was asked what would happen if she told her partner she wasn't in the mood for sex, she replied: "I think he'd be pretty deflated, really, and I think it would be worse because of the fact that he'd taken that pill. I'm frightened that it would hurt his feelings."
Some women reported that less time was spent on pleasurable activities other than intercourse while others said they'd get angry with their husbands for not consulting them before popping a pill.
The study concluded that those women who were not keen to have sex more frequently risked being labelled dysfunctional themselves. There might even be some pressure on them to accept some form of treatment, it said.
(IANS)
