Beyond Viagra

Beyond Viagra
by Gerald Melchiode, M.D. and Bill Sloan
Owl Books/Henry Holt 1999

Have the shadows of sexual dysfunction crossed your life? The honest response for all of us, in one way or another, is likely in the affirmative, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not.

If you have experienced a period of such darkness, did you find a way to address it in a meaningful manner? Are you ready to do so now?

In this wonderfully readable account of the role of Viagra, written at the beginning of its travels into the mainstream of life in 1999, a practicing psychiatrist specializing in human sexuality explores the treatment of sexual dysfunction in both males and females. While the immediate subject of Dr. Melchiode is the appropriate use of Viagra, his fascinating explanation touches on all aspects of sexuality. Through case studies, he explores the means of finding solution to the full range of dysfunction, including the treatment of couples together and apart.

Like money and power, sex touches us all throughout our lives. The good doctor is able to address the issues that come across its transom with sensitivity and understanding. While I hope never to be on his couch, the patient therapist is evident in his explanation of the treatment of the dysfunctions all around us.

The last chapters address the potential benefits of Viagra in women or in men and women treated together. I’ll bet he has a lot to fill-in over the intervening years. I wonder how Dr. Melchiode would write the sequel today. What new chapters would explain the horizon of treatment today?

Warms, Cym