Please Stop Talking to your Doctor Already

This Viagra ad, and others on TV and elsewhere, imply that patients are embarrassed to discuss erectile dysfunction with their doctors. Those poor, shy patients need all the encouragement they can get, so they are urged on radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, and Muzak for all I know, to "talk to your doctor."

Wrong, wrong, wrong! And it's just getting wronger through the years. They ALL ask about it. NO ONE seems the least bit embarrassed.

They want samples.

What they get, of course, is a history, exam, lab work (usually) and a detailed and extensive discussion of what the drug does and doesn't do, how to use it, and so on.

One guy came in, early 40's, and said, verbatim, "Is Viagra right for me?" I successfully kept a straight face, and began taking a history.

Me: What kind of a problem are you having with sex? Trouble with erections?
Him: Oh, no. No problem with getting an erection or anything like that. It's just that the second and third times aren't what they used to be.

(That was where I lost the straight face.)

I can't make this stuff up.