Why is Viagra dangerous and how has its appearance changed our ideas about sex? Sexologist Yevgeny Kashchenko tells.
«Long live sex without love!» is the slogan of modern society. Viagra played an important role in this sensual emancipation. The man of the new millennium now has a firm, unshakable erection. And from now on, harmonious intersexual relations are not its main condition.
With the advent of Viagra and its analogues, a man is no longer looking for feelings that contribute to arousal. He takes a miracle pill that gives him confidence and ensures effective intercourse. And that’s it. And love? We choose «just» sex, not being distracted by courtship and bouquets. It seems that the problem of sexual dysfunction is solved. What’s next?
Men’s problem
For centuries, mankind has tried to understand the nature of erection, looking for that indispensable tool that will ensure the hardness and reliability of the phallus. At first it was assumed that it grows and rises due to filling with air. An erection is its pressure, spirit, the ancient Greeks believed.
In the Middle Ages, they tried to deal with the flow of blood to the genitals. It was believed that there were «erector» muscles in the penis that should be stimulated with electrical impulses. For example, back in the last century, to cure erectile dysfunction, healers rubbed herbs, honey into the penis. They transplanted the testicles of monkeys — for example, Professor Voronin earned millions on such operations at the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
They tried to treat with the introduction of sulfuric acid or silver nitrate. Burned, pulled, built up. What did the male causal place not have to go through! Sexologists of the middle of the last century offered tinctures of ginseng root, deer antlers, fed beaver testicles — and in some places they were completely wiped out. The vacuum pump was also a great success.
And only at the end of the XNUMXth century, scientists realized that there are substances that relax the smooth muscles of the cavernous bodies of the penis and cause and maintain an erection. They created Viagra. For which we thank them. Although, of course, they hardly imagined how this discovery could affect the relationship between a man and a woman and the perception of sex in general.
Illusion of Invulnerability
Desire and attraction are two components of libido that everyone knows about, but often forget to distinguish between them. The first of them, the somatic component — desire, is determined by the level of testosterone production, the degree of puberty, and the functionality of the reproductive system. It is desire that provides physical strength for an erection, gives the ability to men to fulfill their marital duty.
Attraction is the focus on a specific object of sexual preference. This is the psychological component of libido, on which erectile dysfunction depended on 80-95% in the old days. Sexual attraction directly depends on whether there is a loved one, what is the gravitational force between partners, whether everything is good in the relationship.
A man intuitively understands that without love, without mutual sexual attraction, there is a great risk that he will be untenable in the sexual sense of the word. But one single pill can — as if — remove this problem. Guaranteed erection — guaranteed sex.
The main feature of Viagra is that it does not so much create an erection as it does not allow it to disappear. At the same time, the very fact of taking the drug already gives a man self-confidence and stimulates desire without any attraction. From the mere realization that an erection will not fail, a man seeks to realize it both at a young and at a mature age, and in the involutionary period. The emphasis is shifting. What love is already here, the subtleties of communication and the sexual range of partner acceptability.
In case of sexual failure, a man today does not turn to a sexologist, but immediately buys a pill
By the end of the last century, the number of complete impotent patients with vascular etiology of erectile dysfunction was growing rapidly: 5% in forty-year-old men, 15% in seventy-year-olds. And the rest of the stronger sex suffered and suffer from erectile dysfunction of a psychogenic nature to one degree or another.
The paradox of the situation is that in case of sexual failure, a man today does not turn to a sexologist, but immediately buys a pill. So it is easier and faster to solve the problem, as it seems to him. And he gets hooked on this sexual dope, which is generally unsafe.
Viagra is somewhat reminiscent of anabolic steroids and tranquilizers, which, in addition to helping, also cause serious addiction. Already, among the side effects from taking Viagra in combination with nitrogen-containing substances, myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest are called. And at the same time, for some reason, a prescription is not required for its purchase.
It’s not even about Viagra itself, but about its uncontrolled and rather barbaric use. Such stimulants should be taken only by prescription or recommendation of a sexologist: a urologist or andrologist cares only about the functional performance of the main male organ, sometimes forgetting that this mechanism is needed for two.
Yes, and it would be nice to activate the system of sexual education, so that from a young age young people have an idea of mature sexuality, know and respect their body, without falling into hypocrisy, but not descending to a mechanistic perception of sex. Then Viagra will not be a disaster, but an effective remedy. She will not kill love, but will become a means of maintaining it.