NO more popping a pill an hour before a romantic meal or making a booking with the wife. Now the 40 per cent of older Australian men who have trouble getting an erection can take a tablet every morning that will make them ready for sexual intercourse at any time without having to plan.

The pill, to be launched today, is the first of its kind and could revolutionise the sex lives of thousands of men who say that having to take a tablet up to four hours before a potential sex session puts a damper on their love-making.

“If you have to stop and plan when to have sex, it really takes away the satisfaction,” said Doug Lording, an endocrinologist and andrologist at Melbourne’s Cabrini Hospital. “This low-dose pill, which is great for men who have sex twice or more a week, puts that spontaneity back - and we all know that spontaneity is a major component of a happy sex life.”

Tadalafil, known as Cialis, has been on the market in Australia for five years but was available only in 10 and 20 milligram doses that had to be taken hours before sex, in the same way as other impotence drugs such as Viagra.

But the Therapeutic Goods Administration has now approved a smaller-dose tablet, to be taken every day. It will be available on prescription. A packet of 28 will cost about $170 a month. Viagra costs about $70 for four tablets.

“It is expensive but in my experience, most men are just grateful to be able to have sex at all,” the chief executive officer of Impotence Australia, Brett McCann, said yesterday.

“Pre-planning really intrudes on your love-making and I think this pill will help quite a lot of men feel normal again.

“It used to be thought that impotence was a psychological condition but we now know that about 70 per cent of men who have problems getting erections have a co-existing medical condition, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, High cholesterol or cardiac problems. These kinds of medications give them one less thing to worry about.”

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Fairfax Digital
smh.com.au