[Women faced with the problem of erectile dysfunction: women's view on a male problem]

This study is based on an opinion survey conducted with the support of the Société d'Etudes Française Louis Harris, performed by telephone on a final sample of 507 women, representative of the population of French women between the ages of 20 and 65 years, interviewed about their sexuality. In particular we studied their perception and behaviour in relation to their partner's erection problems.

25% of women reported that they had experienced such problems, and although it was impossible to define a predictive profile pre-disposing to this problem, their attitude in relation to this event was found to be globally positive with an attitude designed to reassure and stimulate the partner experiencing erectile dysfunction (92%). In contrast, 66.4% of women considered that their partner's attitude tended to reinforce their sexual difficulties (insistence, withdrawal, avoidance, absence of dialogue). Erectile dysfunction (ED) does not affect the sexual satisfaction of the partner concerned (satisfied in 84% of cases), who report that they suffer much more from the lack of communication, frequent in this type of situation, well than from the absence of penetration (3%).

Medical consultation is still relatively rare, and is essentially requested by the woman when her partner withdraws and refuses any assistance. It is often prevented by negative cognitions concerning the irreversibility of ED, for example when it is attributed to age. There is also a significant difference between women who say that they would encourage their partner to consult for this type of problem (87%), and those who actually encourage their partner to consult when specifically faced with this problem (8%). Women faced with the problem of ED are largely more in favour of the use of erectile drugs that those of the other group.