The benefits of the trio of erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Levitra and Cialis is obviously that impotence is cured but another hidden benefit is that the firms that produce these drugs have spent millions of pounds commissioning surveys into all aspects of relationships and the effect of erectile dysfunction has on them.

In the the most recent study undertaken in Ireland by Eli Lilly, the maker of Cialis, people were asked what they thought was important in their relationships and it seems that friendship, companionship, emotional and financial security, love, having fun and sex were all considered as important.  Around a thousand men and women from Ireland were asked about the the things that they thought were the most important aspects of their relationship and it appears that women considered the aforementioned issues as being more important than the men did except for one thing and that was sex.  In fact 51% of men rated sex as important compared to 43% of women.

Interestingly 17% of men said that their relationship would fail if they suffered from erectile dysfunction whereas only 7% of women said that this would happen if their sexual partner suffered from erectile dysfunction. Nevertheless over 50% said that a big strain would be placed on the relationship if impotence occured and 44% said that ED would mean that there would be less or even no physical intimacy and contact as a result.

Men seemed however to be more concious of the negative effect of erectile dysfunction with 27% of men saying that the impotence would mean that they would not spend as much time with their sexual partner. Only 10% of the women questioned felt that ED would mean them spending less time with their other half.

Of those interviewed 7% of the men had suffered from erectile dysfunction and of this 7%, 41% said that would not spend so much time with their partners if they suffered from ED again which the researchers said underlined that the actual impact of impotence is often more serious that the perception of it.

The interviewers also asked about the effect of erectile dysfunction on the relationship and 66% of the people questioned said that they would either stop trying to have sex completely or they would have sex much less often. If these results are extrapolated to consider the entire Irish population it means that around 215,000 Irish people have been experiencing ED at some point.