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Well, someone once said that the clothes maketh the man. Having put on my physician’s hat, I found the change in point of view useful so I’m going to continue in that vein for another consultation.

We got you through the door as a straightforward patient suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED). In the light of the question and answer session and your medical history, we gave you the basic physical and, having found nothing to indicate more serious medical conditions, we discussed which of the three medications, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, would work best for you. We also considered whether you should buy Levitra or any of the other medications online, looking at privacy vs confidence that you would get the medication you paid for.

But this leaves unanswered the question of what other tests might have been applied. We have all this laboratory space and skilled technicians standing by to do a range of tests. So, rather than leaving them standing around unemployed, let’s run through a few of their tests.

We’ll start with the sex hormones. We can test to see whether there are abnormalities in the levels of testosterone and/or prolactin in the blood. A low level of testosterone can make you less interested in sex and cause an erection problem. Research has shown that men with high blood pressure, diabetes or excessive body weight are twice as likely to have low testosterone levels. The body also produces less testosterone as it ages. This decline usually begins about the age of 40 years and slowly progresses over the next twenty years. It is sometimes referred to as the “male menopause” or “andropause”, but the comparison with women is not justified. When women experience their menopause, ovulation ceases and oestrogen production falls rapidly over a relatively period of time. Read the rest of this entry »