More and more young men are taking medication for sexual dysfunction, Metroxpress reports.
According to figures from the serum institute SSI, the number has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium, with the number of 15 to 29-year-olds being prescribed the drugs shooting up from 529 in 2000 to 1,280 in 2013.
In 2013 the patent of the popular drug Viagra expired and the price of the cheapest pill fell from 81 kroner to 5 kroner. This resulted in young people consuming more of them: 36,000 in 2013 compared to 28,000 in 2012.
Cause for concern?
Per Holm Knudsen, a psychotherapist and sexologist, is worried by the development.
“It’s worrying because the symptom is being treated and not the reason for the problem – namely why they have performance anxiety,” he said.
“It’s not good giving medicine to healthy people. Potency pills might not be dangerous if you are young, but they’re not vitamin pills either.”
However Astrid Højgaard, a consultant doctor at the sexology clinic at Aalborg University Hospital, is less concerned.
“It’s not something I’m worried about. If a deeply unhappy 17-year old, who has had a bad sexual experience because of performance problems, came to me, then I would give him it,” she said.
