Given these feelings of shame and despair and society's disapproval, many impotent men and their partners forswear sex altogether. They have no appetite for the extensive menu of pleasurable alternatives to intercourse. My wife and I were under no such constraints, but I was still committed to the main course. When I was finally ushered into Dr. Whitehead's office, I told him that I wanted to cut right to the chase and talk about all the treatment options that were available to me. Diagnosis before treatment.
Impotence can be an indication that something else is wrong.
Brought up to equate sexual achievement with our manhood, we react to the first sign of trouble with dread. For some, the fear of failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In my case, I was pinning my hopes on a physical cause, a shortage of the male hormone testosterone, which is rare but might be easily repaired with a testosterone patch or injection. Whitehead tested my blood. Now the fun began.