Holiday season sees a spike in demand for sex drugs
AS THE festive season starts, the demand for sexual enhancement drugs is set to soar with more people engaging in sex during the holiday season.
This is according to a Cape Town-based pharmaceutical company, Pharma Dynamics, who said the festive season was associated with an increase in sexual activity and a jump in the sales of erectile dysfunction (ED) medication.
Tumi Motsei, the company’s spokeswoman, said they saw the greatest demand for male sexual enhancement medication in December, with most men “stockpiling” for the busiest season of the year.
Many were using their hard-earned cash, including their bonuses, to buy these drugs as medical schemes often refused to reimburse members for the purchase of these medicines.
About four in 10 men over the age of 40 in South Africa have erectile dysfunction. Stress, guilt and fear of failure were blamed for exacerbating the disorder, especially around the holidays when there was a greater expectation of having sex – both among men and women.
“The festive season is associated with increased opportunities for socialising and intimacy.
“More than a quarter of a million ED pills are sold during this period which equates to a 36 percent increase in unit sales compared to the lowest-use month of the year,” she said.
Motsei said while many thought that ED was an old man’s disease, these days doctors were diagnosing the condition in younger men too. About a quarter of men complaining of ED were younger than 40.
Motsei said even though there was nothing wrong with men seeking a little extra help with their holiday sex demands, there was some form of abuse of these drugs with healthy men taking them recreationally .
“There are safe and effective oral pills to improve sexual function so one can fully understand why men would want to stock up at this time of year, but if the medication is taken recreationally to boost a man’s sexual performance even though it’s not physiologically necessary, it could lead to drug dependence. This means if you don’t currently suffer from ED, using the medication could actually cause you to have ED problems in the future,” she said.
It was often younger men who misused these drugs to help them get a longer-lasting erection. As was the case with all medication, Motsei cautioned that ED drugs should be taken responsibly.
Men experiencing ED should also be cautious as the disease was a precursor to other lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and strokes, hypertension and diabetes.
Lack of exercise, smoking and drinking excessively also negatively affected ED sufferers with as many as eight in 10 cases of ED ascribed to an unhealthy lifestyle.