The ED Team

The fight against erectile dysfunction (or ED) must be a team effort, argues a recent Everyday Health article (“The Erectile Dysfunction Treatment Team,” EverydayHealth.com, 7/22/11). However, it’s common knowledge that the psychology of ED, or Mr. Ed as some sufferers affectionately refer to it, is rooted in that youthful passage when junior is a little off (though maybe not by too far) in thinking that Mom wants him to stick it in. Junior becomes so frightened by his fear of Dad (or the Big Bad Wolf in folkloric terms) that he begins to have murderous thoughts. Perhaps this is the origin of the expression “the only defense is a good offense.” But the ED team must also look to other causes. The Everyday Health piece contains a whole list of people who might be enlisted in the fight against ED, which afflicts over 30 Million men and the women who love them, or at least would like to get laid by them. Everyday Health was correct in adding practitioners of alternative medicine as well as doctors to the ED team, but it’s important that if you do go into the world of alternative medicine to cure ED that you chose a bona fide medicine man. Oftentimes, ED sufferers seek help from urologists who are all too willing to take their money to solve the problem. Just because the pee-pee hole is located at the end of the penis, that’s no reason to conclude that urinary function has anything to do with ED. Most ED sufferers would do just as well to see a vagina specialist or OBGYN than an urologist. In fact, most ED suffers would be better off if they retained an otolaryngologist or even a brain surgeon, since more often than not penile problems originate in the head.