Here in the U.S., we're used to having our politicians express their opinions about how people should have sex, but in the U.K., the government has a say about how often some folks get to roll in the hay.Britain's National Health Service limits patients to four Viagra pills per month (based on statistics that say 40 to 60-year-olds have intercourse once a week). That's pretty stingy to begin with. But now, as part of cost-cutting measures, the NHS wants to reduce the allotment to two pills monthly.
While we wouldn't argue for an unlimited supply of Viagra on the taxpayer's dime, restricting people who rely on government health services to sex every two weeks seems cruel and unusual. As it is, Viagra prescriptions through the NHS are very strictly regulated, and the only patients who can get it are those with diabetes, MS, prostate cancer, or other serious conditions that cause ED. Those folks have a hard enough time as it is - why not let them have a little fun in the sack to take their minds off it?
Richard Hoey, editor of Pulse, a magazine for NHS general practitioners, said, "Ask most doctors and they will say that being able to live a satisfactory sex life is a key part of health and well-being, but the NHS has never recognised that in its policy on treatment for erectile dysfunction.
"Limiting patients to drugs like Viagra just twice a month is to treat sex like an unnecessary luxury, and completely fails to recognise the degree of anguish it can cause some men with erectile dysfunction."
