Sex hormones can be checked by blood tests. If you can climb a flight of stairs, you can have intercourse but having the woman on top will reduce exertion. Some patients will respond to monthly intramuscular injections of testosterone. Others respond to the almost painless injection of papaverine, phentolamine, prostaglandin E1, or all three, into the body of the penis before intercourse. The urologist gives the first injection and shows how painless it is.
Some men respond to local nitroglycerine on the penis, but others get headaches or faint.
Other men produce an erection with a vacuum apparatus and maintain it with a rubber band. A couple with this problem can do a lot to help themselves. Libraries are now full of information on sexual function. Many men know more about their cars than they do about their own or their wives' bodies. Many women read romance novels when they might bring romance into their own marriages.