Help-seeking decisions among men with impotence

Objectives, There is a paucity of valid contemporary data concerning the proportion of impotent men who seek treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of impotent men who sought treatment, from whom they sought treatment, and their reasons for seeking or not seeking treatment. Methods. A self-administered survey of 5198 randomly selected men between 50 and 76 years old, living in four rural counties in central New York State, was used. Results. The sample included 649 men who reported having experienced impotence in the 6 months preceding the study period (November 1996 to June 1997). The mean age of these men and mean duration of impotence were 64.5 +/- 7.2 and 4.9 +/- 4.6 years, respectively. Two hundred five men (31.6%) had sought treatment, 432 (66.6%) had not, and 12 (1.8%) neglected to answer the question. Most first consulted with either their primary care provider (44.7%) or a urologist (40.7%). Among those who had sought treatment, 36.3% were satisfied, 48.4% were dissatisfied, and 15.2% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the results. The primary reasons for seeking treatment were to improve their self-esteem (44.8%), awareness of a new treatment (33.4%), partner insistence (11.3%), and coverage by their health insurance (10.4%). The reasons for not seeking treatment were embarrassment (29.8%), ignorance or misinformation (45.2%), and lack of affordability (25.0%). Conclusions. Despite increased availability of effective treatment, most men with impotence do not seek treatment, and among those who do, only 36.3% are Satisfied with the results. (C) 1998, Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.