SINCE IT was introduced 10 years ago in Portugal, 3.5 million boxes of Viagra and other medicine for erectile dysfunction have been sold.
More than 1,650 boxes containing four pills are sold each day according to studies released by the consultants IMI Health.
A recent study carried out by the Portuguese Society for Andrology (SPA) concluded that 12.9 per cent of men aged between 17 and 75 suffered erection problems, in line with similar numbers found in Spain, but considerably less than figures registered in Nordic countries and a lot less than registered in the United States.
Of around 350 to 400 men, only 10 to 15 per cent seek medical help. In Portugal only, in the region of 20,000 appointments are made with specialists in public hospitals a year.
“The number of speciality appointments in public hospitals is limited and these have been systematically boycotted because they are not profitable,” explains Nuno Monteiro Pereira, ex-President of the Portuguese Society for Andrology.
While a urology appointment lasts around 10 minutes, an andrology appointment takes on average 45 minutes, with the result that waiting lists are enormous.
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