Women complain of too much sex

Some New Zealand women say Viagra is giving their sex life too much of a lift.

They complain that their partners insist on having sex - regardless of their own mood - because the men want to get their money's worth. A 48-year-old, who said Viagra made sex inevitable, said the attitude was: "I've taken the pill, OK, let's go". And a 60-year-old, explaining the difficult adjustment to a sudden, vigorous sex life, said: "All of a sudden Viagra became the focus in the house for a while".

The comments were made in studies by Canterbury University researcher Annie Potts of men and women in relationships where men aged from their mid 30s to early 70s had "erectile difficulties".

She is working on a project on "Viagra culture" and three years ago began studying the downside of Viagra with Tiina Vares, and Victoria Grace and psychologist Nicola Gavey from Auckland University.

Ms Potts presented some of her findings at a conference in Montreal titled Women and the New Sexual Politics: Profits vs. Pleasures.

The presentation was based on three years' study of the "socio-cultural implications" of Viagra and similar drugs, funded by the Health Research Council.

The Montreal Gazette reported that while much scientific research had been done on the safety of drugs aimed at improving sexual performance of men - and increasingly, more were being done on those for women - few had looked at the emotional and relational impacts.

Ms Potts presented a study based on interviews with 27 women, aged 33 to 68, with an average age of 53.

Some of the issues raised included unwelcome changes to sexual practice, tension and conflict in communication between partners, fears about men's infidelity and concerns about adverse health effects from using Viagra.

Some of the women said that health professionals did not consult with the female partner when treating males for erectile dysfunction.

Another speaker, Meika Loe, an assistant professor in sociology at Colgate University in New York, said the success of Viagra had been a double-edged sword: "What is new is the pressure that comes with the Viagra phenomenon and the pressure to be sexual".

In Ms Potts' study, some women complained that their husbands could have multiple erections over a 24-hour period and even though the women didn't want to have sex, they felt a duty to endure it to help their partners repair their battered self-esteem, the Montreal Star reported.

When one 57-year-old was asked what would happen if she told her partner she wasn't in the mood for sex, she replied: "I think he'd be pretty deflated, really, and I think it would be worse because of the fact that he'd taken that pill. I'm frightened that it would hurt his feelings."

Some women reported that less time was spent on pleasurable activities other than intercourse while others said they'd get angry with their husbands for not consulting them before popping a pill.

A 66-year-old wondered what was wrong with having less sex in old age, as nature intended.

"It's wonderful for the man if he gets an erection and enjoys things more, but why can't they accept that life changes and if you can't have an erection. What's the big deal?"

The NZ study concluded that those women who were not keen to have sex more frequently risked being labelled dysfunctional themselves. There might even be some pressure on them to accept some form of treatment, it said.

- NZPA