What men see as a sign of virility is simply an issue of blood flow

Paula Goodyer, a Walkley award winning health writer

It takes more than just male desire to fuel an erection. It also takes a healthy surge of blood flowing into the penis – and if only more men understood this, there’d be fewer erection problems and less heart disease too, says Melbourne endocrinologist Dr Carolyn Allan.

“I think many men believe that desire sends a message to the brain and, hey presto, they get an erection. But what men see as a sign of virility is simply an issue of blood flow. We now know that about 75 per cent of erectile dysfunction has a physical cause and in most cases it’s likely to be artery damage,” says Allan, the medical advisor to Andrology Australia, the Australian Centre of Excellence in Male Reproductive Health at Monash University in Melbourne.

”There are other physical causes too like ... Read more>>