March 2003
From BMJ-British Medical Journal
Guidelines on impotence treatment do not meet men's needs Letter: Erectile dysfunction: NHS should meet current need before preventing future medical needs BMJ Volume 326, p 598 Department of Health guidelines on drug treatment for impotence are not meeting the sexual needs of many British men, argue researchers in a letter to this week's BMJ.In 1998, rationing of all drug treatments for impotence was introduced in the British NHS. The Department of Health used survey data on the frequency of sexual activity to recommend that one treatment a week should be offered on the NHS. To examine the robustness between the Department of Health's recommendation and the survey data, Brian Hurwitz and colleagues divided 4,624 married or cohabiting men aged 20-59 years in the dataset into those whose sexual needs would or would not be met by one treatment per week. They found that one treatment a week leaves a distance between the relevant population norm and that offered by the NHS: 44% of men aged 40-59 and 55% aged 40-44 years have a pattern of sexual activity not met by the government's recommendation. In the interests of transparency and justice, guidance concerning frequency of impotence treatments to be offered on the NHS should refer clinicians to age related average frequencies of sexual intercourse, rather than recommending one treatment frequency for all, they conclude. |