The blue pill is in danger of going into retirement. According to experts, the “love pill” could be placed on the side, particularly when it does not work satisfactorily with hi-tech products, such as shock waves or oral biofilms. In addition to being promising, these therapies have the advantage of not being able to be counterfeit. The Viagra, which has a very large turnover online, is bought without the right precautions: only 10% of times the active ingredient in the packages available online is the right one and in the correct dosage. In this way, the remedies of the future, which are less falsifiable but just as effective, are designed to protect patients’ health. We talk about this topic with Dr. Alessandro Pizzocaro, endocrinologist and andrology referent at Humanitas.
Shock waves, an effective weapon against erectile dysfunction
The Viagra has paved the way for a market whose demand is constantly growing. That is why, according to the experts, it is very important to switch to effective methods that are less at risk of counterfeiting. An example are shock waves, which can be useful in more than 50% of patients with mild to medium erectile dysfunction with a vascular cause, which in Italy are about one million (one third of the total). Shock waves are low voltage and are already used to treat kidney stones: the treatment, which is not painful at all, provides on average six sessions per week and can improve the response to medications for erection and more rarely heal patients, sometimes allowing farewell to drugs and the odious need to schedule reports.
This treatment will be offered by the andrologist after a specialist visit. In Humanitas Rozzano there is an outpatient clinic in which shock waves are applied to erectile dysfunction. Shock waves are mainly indicated in patients with vascular problems. The use of this treatment in patients undergoing prostatectomy is also proving increasingly promising, in which the absence of nocturnal erections causes damage from reduced oxygenation to the cavernous tissues in the first months after surgery. Shock waves improve microcirculation and restore morning erections, reducing the risk of penile retraction and improving spontaneous recovery of erections.
The active substance also arrives in the form of “sublingual film”
Another alternative is represented by oral biofilms, devices placed on the tongue that melt within a few seconds: for a year in Italy there have been already used over 350 thousand. An interesting fact that shows that interest in alternative therapies for erectile dysfunction is constantly increasing.
