Researchers have found that while sexual prowess gradually diminishes with age, men should expect to be able to enjoy sex well into their later years. All men experience temporary periods of impotence at some time in their lives, and these need not cause alarm. A large number of men (10 million) suffer from more long-lasting impotence.

Impotence is a man's inability to produce, or maintain, a penile erection. For this reason, an impotent man cannot have sexual intercourse. Medical specialists define impotence as the persistent inability to achieve an erection of the penis. Masters and Johnson (sex therapists) have formulated a more precise definition: the inability to achieve or maintain enough of an erection for sexual intercourse--sufficient to penetrate the vagina--at least once in four attempts.

DIAGNOSIS --Impotence is a common problem. Surveys show that it occurs in at least 2% of American men under age 35, 10% of those age 55, and 50% of those age 75 and older. A few decades ago physicians and sex therapists believed that impotence was mostly an emotional or psychological problem in 90% of the males. Now, with recent research the sex specialist believes that 50% to 60% of impotence has a physical basis, which is a sign of a medical problem.

During a single night, most normal men will experience several periods of erection lasting for a total of one to three hours. When investigators checked impotent men during sleep, they were surprised to find that half of them experienced erections. The occurrence of erections during sleep was almost always evidence that a man's physical erectile capacity was intact. When an impotent male did not have erections during sleep, in all likelihood his impotence had some physical cause. The physical mechanism that makes an erection possible includes the corpora-cavernosa, two unique blood vessels that are filled with spongy matter. These cigar-shaped vessels flank the underside of the penis. They begin just behind the pubic bone, where the penis is attached to the trunk, and run along the length of the shaft to the head. Two sets of valves regulate the flow of blood to the corpora-cavernosa. One allows blood to be pumped into the vessels, changing the penis from flaccid and pendulous to hard and erect. An erection can increase the size of the penis from 20% to 200%. The other set of valves allows blood to drain off, returning the penis to its pre-aroused state.

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