Assessment and treatment of impotence

Impotence is a common problem. History is primarily relied on to diagnose psychogenic impotence. Sex therapy is an effective treatment. Antihypertensive and psychiatric medicines often cause impotence, but most medicines should be considered a cause if this is supported by the history. Hormonal causes should be suspected in a patient with decreased libido or decreased testicular size, and testosterone should be measured in these cases. Hormone replacement may restore sexual function in hypogonadal men. Doppler sonogram or arteriography should be used to diagnose vascular impotence for men who would be good surgical candidates. Only young men without other illness are considered. There is little need to test neurologic function because there is no specific treatment for neurogenic impotence. These patients and patients who do not respond to the aforementioned treatments should be offered the vacuum erection device, penile self-injection therapy, or penile prosthesis. Choice depends on comorbid illness as well as patient preference. A basic algorithm for the evaluation and treatment of impotence is given in Figure 2.