The mayor of a small Brazilian town has begun handing out free Viagra, spicing up the sex lives of dozens of elderly men and their partners.

“Since we started the free distribution of sexual stimulants, our elderly population changed. They’re much happier,” said Joao de Souza Luz, the mayor of Novo Santo Antonio, a small town in the central state of Mato Grosso.

Souza Luz said 68 men over the age of 60 had already signed up for the program, which was approved by the town’s legislature and has been dubbed “Happy Penis,” or “Pinto Alegre” in Portuguese.

But the program has also had the unforeseen consequence of encouraging some extra-marital affairs, Souza Luz said.

“Some of the old men aren’t seeking out their wives. They’ve got romances on the side,” he said.

To discourage such illicit canoodling, Souza Luz said the city had decided to begin distributing the Viagra pills to the wives of the men who signed up for the program.

“That way, when the women are in the mood, they can give the pills to their husbands,” he said.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com

Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) and depression reported an improvement in both their depression and quality of life when successfully treated with sildenafil for their ED, according to research reported here in a poster presentation at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA).

Many men with erectile dysfunction also experience some symptoms of depression and decreased quality of life, said investigator Sidney H Kennedy, MD, professor of psychiatry and head, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Kennedy and colleagues therefore conducted a study to assess the effect of sildenafil on untreated depression in men with ED. Patients in the study met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - Revision IV criteria for dysthymia or depression, including minor depressive disorder but excluding any form of major depressive or psychotic disorder.

The 6-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study enrolled men with ED and a Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) II score of 14 to 28. The effect of treatment on the depressive symptoms was assessed with the BDI II and ED was measured with standard psychiatric questionnaires. Quality of life (QOL) was measured with the Patient Reported Erectile Function Assessment (PREFA).

The study group consisted of 185 men with an average age of 51 years. Mean BDI II scores at baseline were 18.33 for placebo and 17.99 for the sildenafil group. The duration of depression was 3.32 years for the placebo group and 3.08 years for the sildenafil group. ED duration was 3.79 years and 4.06 years, respectively.

Source:http://www.docguide.com

Presentations such as extensive penile fibrosis arise in the management of erectile dysfunction in which the loss of erectile tissue function or structure is so severe that medical therapy will be ineffective.

In this study, the investigators replaced the surgically removed corporal bodies of rabbit penises with a collagenous scaffold seeded with cultured and grown cellular components of the penis.

Animals impressively demonstrated functional copulatory ability as soon as 1 month after their reconstructions. This study supports the feasibility of erectile tissue engineering for medically refractory erectile dysfunction.

Source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

Unhealthy lifestyles and environmental hazards are threatening men’s reproductive health,claimed medical experts on the seventh Male Reproductive Health Day on October 28.

Infertility, prostate diseases and erectile dysfunction were said to have become the main problems with men in Asia-Pacific areas.

But many men are either too shy to talk about their reproductive problems or too careless about their health, so early symptoms can be neglected and result in unnecessary suffering and often devastating consequences for individuals and families.

“Currently, about 15 per cent of theglobal burden of diseases is associated with failures to address male reproductive health needs,” said Professor Wang Yifei,from the Medical School of Shanghai Jiaotong University.

The renowned expert in male reproductive health made the comments during the Second Asia-Pacific Forum on Andrology held in Shanghai last week.

In China, despite an ageing population,it is still thought of as improper for older people to have sex. “Chinese always say that the years after 60 are yushou the rest life). Does it mean we can’t have a sex life?” asked a local resident in his 60s, who preferred not to be named.

Source:http://www.shanghai-star.com.cn