92 MEN’S HEALTH
Now 30, he first experienced “the internal
panic” at university. The girl he was
cavorting with had started telling him
not to worry before he realised what was
going wrong. “I guess I was struggling,”
he says. “Out of nowhere, she tells me
that this guy her friend is seeing ‘has it all
the time’. She diagnosed me, there and
then. It was the absolute worst thing to
hear. I fancied her a lot. I couldn’t stop
panicking. Then I really couldn’t get it up.”
The frisson fizzled out. They didn’t have
sex, and he never saw her in a romantic
capacity again. That was in 2009, when he
was barely out of his teens. A decade later,
John, who requested that we don’t use his
real name, still carries the shame.
“It’s not something you really go to the
doctor for. Why would you? They’ll only
give you Viagra, which I can get myself.
And who wants to talk about it?”
Who, indeed? But experts believe
that John is just one figure in a crowded
room of men suffering in silence. Erectile
dysfunction (ED), once considered
an older man’s malady, is reportedly
skyrocketing among millennials.
Researchers claim that one in four new
ED patients are now under 40, and a
recent study by Coop Pharmacy found
that, out of 2,000 British men surveyed,
half of those in their thirties had difficulty
achieving or maintaining an erection –
more than men in their forties or fifties.
In medical terms, this makes little
sense. Millennials are healthier, fitter,
more nutritionally switched on and farless likely to suffer from heart disease
than their fathers. Thirtysomethings
run more, drink less and, by and large,
don’t smoke. If there was a checklist of
ways to avoid ED, an average member of
this generation would tick every box. But
doctors are even encountering people in
their teens suffering from ED. So, if we are
seeing a rise in healthy men unable to get
it up, what is getting us down?Hard Cash
Last year, Viagra celebrated its 20th
birthday. Since the little blue pill was
approved for use in 1998, it has made
manufacturer Pfizer more than £13bn in
America alone. Pfizer’s US patent expires in
2020 but, a couple of years ago, the company
negotiated a deal for generic and alternative
options to be sold – a development that
has transformed the ED economy. In effect,Chasing similar success, other
companies followed. Meanwhile, Viagra
went over the counter in the UK in the
form of Viagra Connect and everything
changed here, too. “We’re one of a
handful of UK brands that launched last
year, selling these medications,” says
Riccardo Bruni, co-founder of Many
(formany.com), a London-based online
men’s pharmacy. “There’s a clear market
for these drugs, for young as well as
older men.” It’s hard to argue with the
business model. Many has the backing
of some notable investors, including
Richard Reed, the co-founder of smoothie
company Innocent Drinks.
Crucially, acquisition is simple. To order
drugs from the site, all you have to do is fill
out a consultation form, which is appraised
by Many’s pharmacist. But not all meds
start-ups have an in-house pharmacist,
and the ease of online transactions has
drawn criticism. For example, someIt’s during
the “best”
moments
that things
hit rock
bottom
for John. “In effect,
our erections
have been
commodified”
our erections
have been
commodified.
Among the
first to get a firm
grip on them was
the US start-up
Hims – a wellness
and lifestylemedical professionals
warn that, though many
of these drugs can stave
off the symptoms, they
won’t necessarily fix the
underlying problems.
After all, the causes of
issues such as ED can
be complex.
To understand why something is
broken, it’s useful to know how it works.
While an erection might seem simple
enough – arousal plus stimulus equals go
time – it is the result of an intricate process
requiring the harmonious interplay
of chemistry and the nervous system,
involving multiple biological instruments
that are each prone to hitting a bum note.company that trades on modish, shareable
images and humorous memes, and sells
everything from vitamins to sildenafil, the
active ingredient in Viagra. Its branding
screams “young”, and those cries have
evidently fallen on receptive ears. Last
year, Hims was worth more than £380m
and was reportedly fast approaching
unicorn status: a valuation of $1bn.LAYING THE BLAME
These are the factors that men most commonly cite when struggling to perform
Source: Coop Pharmacy
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