How To Dampen Viagra Sales: Have More Sex
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 2nd, 2008 // 7:57 am
Simple, yes? Men who have more sexual intercourse are more likely to avoid developing erectile dysfunction, according to a study in the American Journal of Medicine. In other words, the more you do it, the less likely you’ll need to buy Pfizer’s expensive little blue pill. Or any impotence pill, for that matter.
Analyzing a five-year study of 989 men aged 55 to 75 years from Finland, the researchers found that men reporting intercourse less than once per week at baseline had twice the incidence of erectile dysfunction compared with those reporting intercourse once per week. Further, the risk of erectile dysfunction was inversely related to the frequency of intercourse.
Other factors that may affect the incidence of ED, such as age, chronic medical conditions (diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and depression), body mass index and smoking were included in the analysis of the data, according to the researchers. Here is the abstract and here is the study.
Erectile dysfunction incidence was 79 cases per 1,000 in men who had reported sexual intercourse less than once per week, dropping to 32 cases per 1,000 in men reporting intercourse once per week and falling further to 16 per 1,000 in those reporting intercourse 3 or more times per week.
In addition, the frequency of morning erections predicted the development of complete erectile dysfunction, with an approximate 2.5-fold risk among those with less than 1 morning erection per week compared with 2 to 3 morning erections per week.
John Mack
Interesting. If you look at the numbers in another way, the incidence of ED in the least sexually active group of men is 79 per 1000 or LESS than 1%! Compare this to the incidence often reported by Pfizer, GSK, and Bayer (marketers of the three Rx ED treatments) of 40%. They qualify that to apply to men over 40 years of age and with the phrase “some degree of erection problem” (See my post: “40over40: Lilly’s DTC ED Awareness Campaign in the UK” at http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2008/07/40over40-lillys-dtc-ed-awareness.html
I’ll have to find out what the mean age was of the men in this study. I might guess that it would be around 40 years of age. It’s hard to imagine a jump from 1% incidence for men under 40 to 40% in men over 40.
Of course, we’re talking about Finns here.
John
John Mack
Sorry. The 3 companies that market ED drugs includes Lilly (Cialis). Bayer and GSK work together on Levitra and Pfizer, of course, is Viagra.
John Mack
Ha! I should have read the abstract before making my comments — the study excluded men with ED on entry when recruiting subjects for the study.
Atlex
John Mack,
I don’t know where you learned math, but 79/1000 is less than 10% not less than 1%. There are also a couple of other things to consider regarding this study. First, and foremost, the Finnish population is substantially different than an American population. With substantially greater obesity, diabetes, CV disease, American men are likely to have significantly higher prevalence of ED. I also wonder (though not having read the full study) if the authors have it backwards regarding causality. They imply that having intercourse more often seems to prevent ED. It seems that an equally logical conclusion could be that ED causes men to have intercourse less frequently.
Atlex
Anne
“It seems that an equally logical conclusion could be that ED causes men to have intercourse less frequently.”
Good point Atlex!
Chris
John,
I believe Schering-Plough and GSK market Levitra in the US, although Bayer is the manufacturer. Bayer has ex-US marketing rights.
John Mack
It’s too early in the AM for math! Anyway, 1%, 10% — it’s still not 40%.
BTW, results of this study cannot be cited to prove that sexual activity can replace Viagra (or Cialis or Levitra) to overcome ED or vice versa as suggested. Men with ED were EXCLUDED right off the bat! The men in the study, therefore, do not represent the population of men to whom these drugs are targeted. The researchers must of had a reason to exclude ED sufferers from the study — perhaps no amount of sex would mitigate these guys’ problems!
harpy
“Use it or lose it” seems to sum it up.