It was 6am on Sunday three weeks ago when I was jolted awake by a phone call. “The lion is dead, completely dead! I am stressed, I need your help,” came a feminine voice.
The use of figurative language is common when people talk about anything sexual. This is to avoid the embarrassment and stigma that surrounds sex talk. I have however learned never to assume what people mean when they use flowery language. A doctor still needs to know the dry facts as they are.
“Who has died? And whom am I talking to?” I asked.
“My name is Jane, have you forgotten me? It is about my husband. We have visited your clinic with him several times.”
Oh yes, the voice became familiar. I have known Jane for 10 years. She has been a frequent client at the clinic for pregnancy care as well as for family planning services. She has a supportive husband who always brings her to the clinic. She is in her late 30s and in a happy marriage.
“Oh no, I hope nothing bad has happened to your husband?” I replied.
“Well, I don’t know what to say,” Jane explained. “It is just that he can no longer stand up to the occasion, I mean, his lion is dead!”
The lion in this instance was the male organ and Jane was talking about erection failure. Her man had been having chronic headaches for some time. He visited a doctor who diagnosed him with high blood pressure. Because the pressure was too high, he was admitted to hospital for three days. He was put on two types of tablets thereafter and instructed never to miss a dose since he risked getting complications if the pressure was not controlled. Within a week of treatment, the blood pressure normalised and the headaches subsided.
The couple then resumed their conjugal responsibilities but to their surprise, the man could not have an erection.
“I tried what I could to stimulate him but the thing just lay there idle and lifeless,” explained Jane. “It was so frustrating.”
I asked Jane to bring her man to the clinic. If anything he had always brought her for treatment and reciprocating would not be a bad thing.
After a full assessment of the man, my conclusion was that the medicine he was given for the hypertension was causing erection problems. This is a common occurrence in several diseases, especially the chronic ones. Many times, the doctor is concerned with the disease and its complications and may forget that functioning sexually is critical in the wholesomeness of life.
There are medicines that take away sexual urge in both men and women. There are others that affect sexual stimulation so that in women there is no lubrication while in men there is no erection. Some drugs also prolong the duration needed for orgasm to happen. Rarely, drugs may increase sexual urge. Research has shown that most health workers do not give information when treatment affects sex. It is a difficult topic and they tend to shy away from it because in our cultures, avoiding sex talk is virtuous. It is for the same reason that patients also choose to suffer in silence and consider it embarrassing to report the problem to the doctor.
Whatever the case, it is important and your right to receive all information on the treatments you are getting. Always ask if the treatment being given affects sexual function. Remember that when sex fails, there can be severe social consequences including gender-based violence, separation, and even divorce. These can negate the benefits that you get from the treatment of your ailment.
“So how do we revive my husband’s organ, doctor?” Jane asked. “He has not eaten anything today due to the experiences of last night. In fact he has not been talking to me.”
Well, it is quite humiliating for a man not to have an erection. It is the way men are wired. Their minds and their sexual prowess are closely knitted. Sexual failure is a serious risk factor for mental health problems in a man including depression, loss of self-confidence and ego crash.
When medicine used to treat another disease is the cause of sex failure, the remedy is to withdraw the medicine and replace it with an equally effective one that does not have sex-related side effects. Fortunately, there are many such alternatives for every disease. I therefore had the man’s medicine changed. I reviewed him a week later and he was in perfect health, the lion having resurrected! So, next time you are given medicine, just remember to ask your doctor if it affects sexual function.
