The Asian Erectile Dysfunction Advisory Council and Training (EDACT) Group's latest survey may use rather vivid imagery to describe its subjects' manhood, but one physician said the measurements work.
EDACT conducted a telephone survey of 1,009 Taiwanese men and then classified each man's manhood in one of four groups -- cucumbers, bananas, peeled bananas and conjac jelly.
These groups are supposed to correspond to the erection hardness score (EHS) which goes from one to four, according to Huang Yi-sheng (黃一勝), chief physician at Shinkong Hospital's urology department.
"It's a rough and ready measure, but it corresponds quite well to more sophisticated indices such as the IIEF or the QEQ," Huang told a press conference sponsored by Pfizer, the makers of Viagra.at a press conference, yesterday.
IIEF is the International Index of Erectile Function and the QEQ stands for the Quality of Erection Questionnaire. Huang did not mention whether either of those scales also have their vegetable equivalents.
Seventy-four percent of Taiwanese men fall into the "cucumber" category according to the survey, meaning that they have no erectile dysfunction. Twenty-three percent were designated as "unpeeled bananas," meaning they suffer mild dysfunction, but are still able to have penetrative sex.
"Peeled bananas," at 2 percent, and "conjac jellies," at 1 percent of the population, have moderate and severe erectile dysfunction respectively.
"The old thinking is that if you can maintain penile erection, you do not have erectile dysfunction; the new understanding is related to satisfactory sexual performance" said Andrew McCullough, associate professor of urology at New York University School of Medicine, speaking at the same news conference.
"Those with mild erectile dysfunction might be having sex almost as often as those without erectile dysfunction. The difference comes in their and their partner's level of satisfaction," McCullough said. "We used to tell those patients not to worry. But now, with the new generation of erectile dysfunction drugs, it makes no sense not to help them."
When asked whether those with mild erectile dysfunction might try other measures to improve their sex life before turning to medication, McCullough said "Of course."
"Exercise, smoking cessation and being more spontaneous with your partner can all be very helpful," he said. "But ultimately it is very hard to change human behavior."
BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two
National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) Ethical Review Committee on Tuesday approved the hospital’s application to conduct human trials of mixed Moderna and Medigen COVID-19 vaccines. The hospital yesterday said that 220 volunteers aged 20 to 70 who have received one dose of a Moderna vaccine eight to 12 weeks ago are to be enrolled in the program. The volunteers are to be separated into two groups — a treatment group and a control group — and a double-blind study would be conducted, assigning Medigen or Moderna vaccines to the groups on a random basis, it said. The trial is expected to start
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
TAIWAN TIES: The foreign ministry said like-minded nations continue to express support for Taiwan’s ties with Lithuania, highlighting a letter by Slovenia’s PM US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday saluted Lithuania’s championing of democracy in Taiwan and Belarus. Lithuania in July agreed to let Taiwan open a representative office using its own name, prompting a pressure campaign by China. “We stand against economic coercion, including that being exerted by China,” Blinken said as he welcomed Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis in Washington. “We stand strongly for democracy, including in Belarus, where we’re very much working together,” Blinken said. Landsbergis told reporters afterward that he and Blinken discussed “economic, financial, political measures” that can be taken to withstand Chinese pressure. “We discussed various possible measures
RSS