Ask Dr. Ceren: Pills To Enhance Libido Misses The Point
© 2004-2006, Sandra Levy Ceren. All Rights Reserved.

Advertisements for sexual enhancement pills appear in newspapers, magazines and with great frequency on television. Commercials showing delighted wives basking in the contagious glow of their husband's newfound potency are accepted as fact, but women will tell you that it is not necessarily so.

These pills reinforce the same old bad habits and recreate the same old bad sex. Worse, it also refocuses the role of the penis as its centerpiece. As one woman noted on the introduction of Viagra into her sex-life, "It's like his penis is a trophy for a game he never played, and shame on me if I don't get in there and act like a cheerleader."

The pharmaceutical industry boldly states its intention to increase their current volume of fifteen million customers to thirty to sixty million over the next few years. These companies have re-defined erectile dysfunction as a quality-of-life issue for significantly younger men and are now responsible for creating or magnifying a problem. Many men from time to time may experience impotence temporarily which may occur for psychological reasons or simple exhaustion for which no pill is needed. Consider the side-effects and the cost. Is this pill really needed by sixty million men?

Further the pharmaceutical companies haven't queried the millions of women who will be effected. Doesn't the female perspective matter?

Prior to the pharmaceutical treatment of impotence, couples dealt with the issue through intimacy-building exercises, erotic creativity and communication. Couples were encouraged to spend more time on desire-building activities - foreplay, fantasy, and stimulation. While these activities didn't always lead to consistent erections, they often resulted in greater intimacy, stronger relationships, increased desire and pleasure for both sexes.

Now a little blue pill is thought to solve the problem-completely, but it does so physiologically, often to the detriment of psychological factors. As the Journal of Canadian Family Physicians recently noted, "Individual psychological, and couple, factors remain important causes. Combining medical treatments with individual, couple or sex therapy, is often more helpful than prescribing medicine alone."

As these drugs become more popular, there will be less focus on communication about the condition itself, between doctors and patients and between mates.

Many women resign themselves to orgasm-less relationships, and often resort to faking it to protect their partners feelings or to avoid prolonging an uncomfortable activity. Because we are taught that intercourse the "right" way to experience orgasms, many women feel responsible and guilty when it doesn't happen for them.

And so, soon to be on the market may be a pill to enhance her libido--at the cost of changing her hormone levels in ways that may be physically harmful, and expensive.

An article published last year in the International Journal of Impotence Research noted that the possibility of sexual problems in the patient's partner should be considered as well.

If impotence is really approaching epidemic proportions as the pharmaceuticals would have us believe, shouldn't we look at the cause and try to eradicate it?

Sandra Levy Ceren, Ph.D is a long time Del Mar psychologist helping individuals, families and couples. She invites your query and visit at www.DrSandraLevyCeren.com