Even in this Viagra age, talking out loud about sex can be tough and the doctor’s office is no exception. Across the country in the past three years, primary care and specialty physicians have put eight million people on medication to cure sexual dysfunctions. These patients may leave with a prescription in hand but are hardly prepared with straight answers. Example: A man takes his dose of Viagra and then waits alone for it to jumpstart his sex life – not realizing that, for the medication to take effect, he needs to be sexually aroused. In many cases, the right questions haven’t ever been asked up-front because medical practition-ers receive little or no training in sexual medicine, according to Raymond Rosen, PhD, Director of the Program in Human Sexuality and Sexual Pharmacology Research at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).

UMDNJ’s Center for Continuing and Outreach Education (CCOE) has taken the lead three times by supporting Rosen’s efforts to clear up the wave of confusion in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions. Healthcare professionals have educational needs and "innovative, invitational consensus conferences are an ideal vehicle for fulfilling our outreach mission," said Robert Moutrie, PhD, Associate Vice President and CEO of CCOE. In June 2000, an international conference to develop new guidelines for the management of sexual activity in patients with heart disease was held. A second conference took place in June 2001 on the topic of androgen deficiency in women, which can cause sexual arousal difficulties. And the most recent meeting, held in September, brought 20 experts to Newark to examine the role of the allied health professional in the management of erectile dysfunction (ED). ED is the inability to achieve and/or maintain an erection satisfactory for sexual intercourse, a condition affecting 30 to 40 percent of men over the age of 50.

Program co-chair Jean H. Lewis, RN, CANP, BSN, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN, explains, "Questions about sexual functioning may be difficult for the clinician. They may trigger his or her own anxieties about sexual issues. Very, very often, the allied health professional (the nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, diabetes counselor) can bridge the communication gap between the patient and the physician." In one study, only 12 percent of 250 physicians reported feeling "adequate" in addressing sexual problems and said that impotence was more embarrassing than incontinence, eating disorders or substance abuse.

Sponsored by RWJMS’s Depart-ment of Psychiatry and CCOE, with an unrestricted educational grant from Bayer Corporation, the programs aim to answer all those doctors who have been telling experts like Rosen and Lewis, "I really need help with this to give my patients quality care."