The Importance of Diagnosing Erectile Dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is becoming a common problem for more and more men, but unfortunately, not all of them choose to do something about it. According to statistics, only roughly one-half of all men who experience symptoms of ED seek professional medical help to resolve this issue, and only another half of these men ask their doctors for a prescription to get an ED drug. As you can see, only a small part of all ED patients actually get to the point when they are actively doing something to relieve their symptoms.
It is definitely not a good idea to just silently accept erectile problems and hope that they will go away of their own accord. ED often leads to relationship problems, and as the tension between sexual partners grows, it becomes increasingly harder for the man to acknowledge the fact that he has a problem in the bedroom and seek help for it. Most often, lack of healthy communication between partners leads to mutual attempts to ignore ED, which slowly but steadily add to the deterioration of the relationship. In such conditions, physiological ED is likely to grow into a psychological problem, which makes it harder to deal with.
Finally, your erectile problems might not be a “side effect” of aging, but rather a sign that something is going wrong inside your body. ED is often associated with diabetes, hardening of the arteries and hypertension. If you seek medical help as soon as you start experiencing ED symptoms, your doctor is highly likely to aim to discover the cause of your ED, so that the underlying issue can be addressed. This way, both your general and sexual health are going to benefit from treatment.
As you can see, erectile dysfunction is not something you can just turn your back on and wait for it to disappear. Obviously, it is not life-threatening, so it is possible to deal with it without seeking medical help, but it is bound to eventually have some negative impact on your sexual relationships and your overall quality of life. Thus, do not hesitate to consult your medical practitioner if you think that erectile problems might be the reason for your disappointing performance in the bedroom.
Getting a Cialis Prescription: Information to Prepare and Tests to Expect
If you decided to consult your healthcare provider about your erectile difficulties, you need to make an appointment with him/her. It is advisable that you do some preparation before your appointment so that you make the most out of your time with your doctor. First of all, focus on your symptoms: make a list of them, adding such details as an approximation of when they began, how fast was their onset, are they regular, do they appear only in certain circumstances, etc.
Second, write down all pharmaceuticals (including non-prescription medications and herbal additives) and give the list to your doctor at the beginning of the appointment. This list might not be crucial to your diagnosing, but it will definitely come in handy when your healthcare provider has to decide whether it is safe for you to be using an ED drug like Cialis. You might also want to make a similar list representing your medical history, especially if your doctor is not familiar with it. Consider asking your long-term sexual partner to come along to the appointment to provide support and additional information that you may have forgotten or not noticed.
During the appointment, your doctor will consider the information you give him/her and then go on to the physical exam of your testicles and penis. It is also likely that he/she will want to have a look at your breasts and hair because enlarged breasts and hair loss could point to one of the reasons for your erectile problems. It is highly likely that just these simple tests will not be enough to diagnose you, so your healthcare provider will probably want you to do some additional tests. These may include blood and urine tests which can show if your ED is caused by diabetes, kidney problems or hormone disorders, such as low testosterone levels.
If the results of these tests turn out to be normal, your doctor may supply you with a special device that you will have to wear around your penis while you sleep to measure the number and strength of erections you get during the night. Generally, a man should have from three to five erections every night. If the device shows that you had no erections in your sleep, the causes of your ED are most likely to be physical. However, if the device does record several erections, your erectile problems probably exist due to mental or emotional reasons. A simpler version of this test involves wearing a special plastic ring on your penis while you sleep at night. If you get an erection, the ring will break.
Your doctor may also need to check the blood flow to your penis to make sure that it is unimpaired. This can be done with the help of two tests: the injection test and the ultrasound (Doppler) test. During the former test a special medication will be injected into your penis to see if it gets an erection shortly after that, while the latter involves using a special device that relies on sound waves to recreate your blood flow on the screen. Based on the results of these tests, your healthcare provider will be able to decide whether it is your blood flow that causes erectile problems or not.
Tadalafil Safety of Use and Dangers of Self-Administration
Cialis is generally a safe medication, but it does have some contraindications and restrictions regarding particular groups of users. First of all, patients who suffer from hypotension are not allowed to use Cialis because even a single Cialis pill is capable of significantly lowering the blood pressure, resulting in serious blood pressure drops. Patients who suffer from hypertension and use medications to address may be allowed to use Cialis, but its interaction with the blood pressure regulating medicines has to be taken into account by the medical practitioner while prescribing a custom Cialis dosage.
Also, Cialis is not to be used by patients who have liver and/or kidney disorders, as well as those who have recently had a stroke. A very rare inherited condition called retinitis pigmentosa is associated with individual cases of vision loss in Cialis users, so it is important to make sure that you do not have it before you start taking Cialis. Finally, patients who have a history of priapism (painful, prolonged erections) should use Cialis with caution because taking it might result in another onset of priapism.
As you can see, there are some medical conditions which are incompatible with Cialis, so it is highly advisable that you consult your healthcare provider before you start using the medicine. You may be convinced that you do not have any of these health problems, but it is always better to be on the safe side and use Cialis safely rather than have to deal with consequences of irresponsible drug administration.
If this is not enough to convince you that you need to pay a visit to your doctor to get a Cialis prescription before you start using the medication, consider this: Cialis may also interact with medications you are currently taking. It is highly unlikely that you are capable of checking all possible Cialis interactions and making sure that it is safe for you to take this ED drug all on your own.
Even assuming you could do that, the question of an appropriate dosage still remains unanswered. Do you start with a small Cialis 10 mg dose or do you gulp down a 100 mg dose all at once? How do you know whether the pill was ineffective due to small dosage or other reasons? It is only your doctor who can answer these questions correctly without doing a fair share of guesswork. Ultimately, it is only up to you to choose whether you are going to put your own health and well-being into perspective and consult your healthcare provider or just order the Cialis online and administer your own treatment, but remember that the consequences of your hasty decisions might be very grave.