THE VIAGRA MYTH: The Surprising Impact on Love and Relationships

Morgentaler, a practicing urologist and a professor at Harvard Medical School who has done research on erectile dysfunction, wants to explode the "notion of Viagra as an automatic solution, as the quick fix to all sexual problems." He has no problems with the millions of prescriptions of Viagra that doctors have made since the drug was introduced in 1998. But he is effective at presenting facts that are not so well known, such as that the drug works in 80% of men with performance anxiety but only two-thirds of men with other types of erectile dysfunction. What he does best, however, is to demonstrate how "a firm erection cannot solve deeper problems." Each chapter describes a situation in which a patient who thought that Viagra was the answer to his problems finds that there are other explanations. In one, a man learns that his performance problems have to do with the lack of trust he and his partner share; in another, a man who thinks that Viagra will make his sexual performance last the right time learns that "studies have shown that humans average only a minute and a half for their sexual encounters." Short bullet-point summaries of important information at the end of each chapter and an excellent section on "Frequently Asked Questions About Viagra" help make this book an important resource for both physicians and patients who are contemplating prescribing or using the drug, but who may be doing so for all the wrong reasons. (Oct.)