What About Internet Treatment?
The Internet has irrevocably changed our world. From the comfort of home we can obtain sports scores, help our children research a term paper on Celtic history, or trade stocks. It was only a matter of time before medical care became available on the Internet. Watch out. There is no accountability for the information presented, so anyone with a laptop can make any claims. More dangerously, you can buy vacuum constriction devices, constriction rings, injectables, or prescription medications such as Viagra simply by checking a few boxes on a Web site whose company is based in some unknown land.
Recall that in 1999 the First International Consultation on Erectile Dysfunction convened in Paris to review all the scientific information available on erectile dysfunction. Cosponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Societe International d’Urologie, they emphasized that medical treatments require the direct involvement of a physician and condemned Internet prescribing.
Although some consumers have expressed the opinion that these recommendations come from physicians’ needs to “protect turf,” this is not true. First, the WHO is far more motivated to assure access to quality care for underserved populations than it is to protect the salary of doctors in the United States. They couldn’t care less if physician waiting rooms were empty in Cleveland, but they do care that patients are safely cared for throughout the world.
The second reason that this is not true relates to the need of each patient to have a physician looking closely at his individual situation concerning health care. As emphasized earlier, the penis is in some ways just a monitor of the rest of the patient’s health. Therefore erectile dysfunction may be a sign of serious or life-threatening disease. These won’t be detected by a Web site. In addition, although impotence treatments are usually safe, side effects are always a possibility. The Web site won’t be there in the middle of the night if a problem should arise, and they sure won’t be there to help you decide what to do if the treatment you got at the Web site doesn’t meet your needs. So use your chance, buy viagra right now.
Recall that treatments as varied as a vacuum constriction device, injectables, and oral medications have been shown to have poor success rates without proper education but excellent success rates when proper instructions are given. The Web site won’t care about how you use the products, as long as your credit card authorization comes through. Make an appointment with a physician you can trust. If you don’t have one, let this be the time you change that.
