His and Her Health

Viagra is a safe and effective oral treatment for men with erectile dysfunction of physical, psychological or mixed cause. However, it is important that patients should be aware of the low probability (less than 50%) that intercourse will be possible after the first dose - particularly in severe or advanced cases. The majority of men who stop Viagra because of apparent lack of effect will in fact respond and achieve intercourse if they continue to try, progress from 50 mg to 100 mg, or take the pill without food on an empty stomach (3 hours after eating).

It's not what most would think or guess. Erectile dysfunction (the inability to obtain an erection and sustain it to have penetrating intercourse, many estimate, makes up less than 10 percent of all cases of male dysfunction issues. The answer: Premature Ejaculation (PE). or as Hisandherhealth.com medical director, Dr. Myron Murdock describes it, Heightened Sexual Sensitivity (HSS.) That reportedly accounts for some 80 percent of male sexual dysfunction. There is no specific time for HSS, but penetration is considered a key element and insufficient time (of up to 120 seconds) for both the partners. Here are two abstracts from papers on this topic that were presented at the 2003 American Urological Association annual meeting.

Incontinence can be a complication of prostate surgery done for either benign or a malignant disease. I am going to concentrate on incontinence following surgery for prostate cancer, although many of the same principles apply for incontinence caused by surgery done for benign enlargement of the prostate such as TURP or open prostatectomy.

Many individuals, particularly women, have serious problems with urgency and frequency of urination, urgency control problems, bladder instability, and urgency incontinence. In the past the only drugs available to relax the bladder in these patients included Banthine, Probanthine, Hyoscyamine (Levbid), and Ditropan. The major side effect include dry mouth, constipation, visual disturbances, and occasionally mental agitation and fatigue.

Many people suffer from urinary incontinence - the involuntary loss of urine. Often ashamed, they hide behind a shroud of secrecy. They believe the myth that urinary incontinence is a result of normal aging or childbirth - that loss of bladder control is inevitable and irreversible. The truth is, in most cases, urinary incontinence is treatable. People of all ages can lose control of their bladder. One in five older men and about one-half of all women will experience urinary incontinence in their lifetime.

Millions of American suffer from urinary incontinence (loss of bladder control). It has been estimated that up to 18 percent of men will experience loss of bladder control during their life and that $10 billion is spent in the United States every year on pads and other incontinence related products. Also, in previous surveys, only 1 of 10 people with an incontinence problem sought help for their problem. The most common reasons for not seeking help included thinking that loss of bladder control is a "normal" part of aging (not true), that nothing could be done about the problem (also not true), or the incontinent person was too embarrassed to seek help. With current methods of evaluation and treatment, almost all bladder control problems can be either eliminated or significantly improved.

Cardiologists use "stents" to keep open obstructing coronary arteries. These stents are made of materials that are basically a woven tunnel which are placed using x-ray control within the blocked vessels of the heart. Urology deals also with problems of obstruction, and in particular, obstruction from prostate disease and obstruction from stricture disease of the urethra.

Clothing may make the man, but at the end of the 19th century, accessories were what counted most for men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). No finery did more for men suffering from enlarged prostates than bowler hats, walking sticks or umbrellas. For stashed discreetly in the hat bands or hollow cane-shafts were one of the few means of relief for a man suffering from BPH-related restricted urine flow: a catheter.

The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is one of the most familiar of urology's milestones. Millions of men have benefited from early prostate cancer detection because of this revolutionary (albeit somewhat controversial) blood test. Yet, given urology's centuries-old timeline, the research that produced this simple tool is relatively recent. Before 1986, when the Food and Drug Administration approved the PSA test for monitoring prostate cancer, no blood test existed to screen for the disease.

For someone suffering from acute urinary retention, nothing spells relief quite like a catheter. Today's catheters are safe, indispensable diagnostic and treatment tools in many specialties, employed as much to inject fluid as to drain it. In cardiology, for instance, they're the conduit for radiopaque dye to magnify coronary arteries and miniature stents to unblock them. But the history of the catheter belongs to urology and the process of draining a painfully distended bladder dates to antiquity. The catheter is one of civilization's first therapeutic interventions.