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Problems
with the arteries
General
obstacle for most men is this: most British males
over the age of about 25 have already started to develop
some deterioration of their arteries, that is the tubes
which carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
By the age of 50, most of us have quite extensive arterial
degeneration. If we are lucky and have kept
ourselves fit, this ‘furring up’ of the arteries may
cause no trouble for many years. But in an awful lot
of guys, some degree of blockage of the blood flow to the
penis occurs. The likely result of this is impotence
(‘erectile dysfunction’). This is much more
likely to occur in smokers since smoking damages the
arteries pretty badly.
What
about your hormones?
Men
whose potency isn’t quite what it was are often very
worried about their male hormones. They think that
they must be producing less testosterone (the male sexual
hormone). Very frequently, they come into my
consulting room depressed and weeping and saying things
like ‘I’m obviously not a real man any more,
doctor’. But in the vast majority of cases, their
fears are quite unjustified. As a rule, their
hormone levels are perfectly OK and they don’t need
hormone treatment. Some other kind of therapy will
usually put them right.
Most
regrettably certain private sex clinics in London and
elsewhere, have promoted the idea that fellows have sex
difficulties are probably suffering from lack of male
hormone. The clinics term this ‘the male
menopause’. Frankly, I regard this viewpoint as a
load of old nonsense! Please be very wary of any
private clinic where they want to sign you up for a course
of hormone treatment costing thousands of pounds.
Several of my patients who are of retirement age have told
me that they were ripped off by outfits of this type.
In these places, the white-coated consultant who
interviews you may not actually be a doctor at all – he
is actually a salesman. You have been warned!
Premature
ejaculation
Premature
ejaculation is ‘coming too soon’. It is
extraordinarily common in younger males but by retirement
age, most men have learned to control their reactions and
‘last’ for pretty well as long as they like!
However, if you do happen to suffering from ‘P.E’, it
can easily be cured. The best treatment is a system
of bedroom exercises, which you can do with your partner.
You need to be taught by a sex therapist for instance at
Relate. If for some reason, the man can’t manage
the above treatment (say if his partner isn’t too
helpful), then it is sometimes possible to help him by
prescribing a particular type of anti-depressant drug,
which lengthens the time take to climax.
Finally
a lot of guys try to treat their own P.E. by using the
widely advertised local anaesthetic sprays, which are
supposed to ‘dull’ sensation in the penis.
Personally, I don’t recommend these, mainly because it
is possible to develop very painful skin sensitivity to
the ingredients.
Inability
to Climax
Regrettably,
difficulty in reaching orgasm is common in more mature
men. Research has shown that after the age of 50,
the average time taken to achieve climax gets steadily
longer. So a chap who could climax in six minutes
when he was 40 may find that it takes him 24 minutes when
he is 70!
It
isn’t easy to provide medical help here. What is
important is to talk things over with your partner, so
that she understands that you are no longer as ‘highly
triggered’ as you once were. Quite a lot of older
couples reach an agreement that it’s not actually
necessary for the man to reach a climax on every single
occasion.
On
the other hand, many couples find that they can induce
orgasm in the man by employing sex aids (such as
vibrators) – or even erotic fantasies!
Finally,
please bear in mind that there are certain drugs
prescribed by your family doctor, which can make it
difficult to reach orgasm. In particular, various
antidepressants, such as Prozac, are notorious for
preventing people form climaxing. So a change of
medication will often improve matters dramatically.
Soreness
and Pain
The
skin of the penis tends to get thinner and more easily
damaged with age. So a lot of over-50’s complain that
lovemaking makes them red or sore or causes them actual
pain. A very common additional factor is this – it
is likely that the mature man’s partner is not producing
as much vaginal secretion as she used to. So this
dryness can help to make the chap sore and red. In these
cases, it is important to use plenty of ‘sex
lubricant’ – for more details, see last month’s
article.
If
added lubrication doesn’t solve the problem, what then?
The man should definitely see his GP or a dermatologist,
to find out whether he has any skin disorder – or
whether there is a mild infection, such as thrush
(candida).
Lessened
amount of fluid
Many
men write to me because they are worried by the fact that
they are producing less sex fluid than they used to.
In fact, research shows that it is normal to produce
a little less from about age 50 onwards and do remember
that the average volume of semen is far less than many men
imagine, even when you are young. I was involved in
a ‘sex survey’ conducted during a national TV
programme. We asked viewers to say how much fluid
the normal male produces; many respondents thought that
the correct answer was ‘an egg-cupful’. In fact,
the correct answer is only a teaspoonful (5ml).
Lessened
Power of Ejaculation
Again,
a lot of more mature guys ask my advice because they are
concerned that ‘the fluid doesn’t go as far as it used
to, doctor’. I am afraid that laboratory research
in the USA has shown that it is absolutely normal for the
‘distance travelled’ to get steadily less as you get
older. For example, a younger man can sometimes with
sufficient stimulation, produce a ‘jet’, which ends up
in his hair! But once you are past 50, you are doing
extremely well if your fluid travels as inch or two.
This
is just a fact of life and there is very little that you
can do about it. However, getting fitter and losing
any excess weight may help. Also, a number of my
patients have found that if they do ‘pelvic muscle
exercises’ for a few months, this seems to give them a
more powerful ejaculation. |
