Unfortunately, in surveys it has been found that:

- Half of the people with high blood pressure in a community have not been detected. They have hypertension and do not know it, because they have not had their blood pressure checked.

- Half of those people who are known to have high blood pressure are not taking any medication.

- Half of those people who are being treated are inadequately treated, namely, they are taking too small a dose or using an inappropriate drug.

If the level of hypertension is such that you need drugs and want to prevent the complications of high blood pressure you must receive and continue to take your treatment in the appropriate dose. Yet only half the known people who have a high blood pressure are taking medication. In an investigation in the U.S.A. it was found that even though the people with hypertension visited their doctor every three months, they still failed to take the prescribed drugs. When the men were asked why, they answered that they did not realize that they had to take the drugs permanently. When they felt better, they stopped!

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The problem of accepting this psychoanalytic research is that many heterosexuals have similar unsatisfactory relationships with their parents, and most homosexuals come from happy, well- adjusted homes.

Perhaps the explanation is that an unsatisfactory childhood, operating in one or more of the ways I have described, may prepare the way for homosexuality and the preference is facilitated or inhibited by emotional experiences occurring in adolescence, or later. These experiences do not include ‘mutual masturbation’ or ‘ejaculation competitions’ which occur quite normally in the development of adolescent sexuality.

If the reasons for homosexuality are unknown, is there any information about how a homosexual identity develops? Obviously such information can only be obtained from a homosexual who has ‘come out’, who is articulate and not fearful. One such person is Dennis A4tman and I am grateful to him for permission to quote his experiences.

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Penile splints of various kinds are available in sex aid shops and most are not much use. Essentially they are all similar, consisting of a metal strip covered with plastic and terminating at each end in a rubber ring – in fact, rather like a glorified toothbrush! The idea is that the penis is held erect by the appliance. It usually isn’t.

Another type of appliance comes from Japan. If a man can manage some degree of erection, he slips his penis through the hole in a firm rubber ring which he then pushes down to the base of his penis where it fits tightly. The idea is that the pressure of the ring will prevent the blood draining out of his penis until the ring is released, and in this way his penis will fill with blood and become firm. It is also not very effective.

The most advanced of the penile splints was first made in England. It is called the Coitus Training Apparatus, and it is made to fit over the penis, so that the head of the penis protrudes. Some impotent men have found it helps considerably but, like all the other appliances, it is not the real answer, for the sexual disorder does not lie in the penis but in the anxious mind of the impotent man.

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It is not too far-fetched to compare premature ejaculation to bed-wetting. A small infant has no control over its bladder. When the urine stretches the bladder, a reflex occurs which makes the bladder contract and the infant urinates. As the infant grows it learns to suppress the reflex, and delays urination until an appropriate time. In some ways, a man with premature ejaculation is like the infant; he has not learned to delay his ejaculation until a more appropriate time

Premature ejaculation is not only frustrating to a man’s sexual partner, but also reduces his full sexual enjoyment. Men who have been cured of premature ejaculation report that when they had the sexual problem, their orgasms were less pleasurable. Some men have said that it was as if their penises were anaesthetized.

In addition to reducing a man’s sexual pleasure, premature ejaculation can cause anxiety and distress to both partners. The man feels guilty about his inadequate sexual performance, the woman feels perplexed, rejected, and perhaps hostile to the man who seems to be ignoring her sexual needs.

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In an over-populated world, it may come as a surprise to learn that between 10 and 15 per cent of couples who desire to have a child are unable to do so. They are barren, sterile, or infertile. The terms are interchangeable.

Until about thirty years ago, the fault was thought to be due to the woman’s inability to conceive. If a man could obtain an erection and could ejaculate within the woman’s vagina, it was believed that he could not be sterile. It is now known that this belief was wrong. In most investigations of infertility, the man is at fault in nearly one-third of cases. Although he can get an erection and can ejaculate, he has few or no spermatozoa in his seminal fluid. The absence of sperm obviously prevents him having children, although his sexuality is not affected.