Erectile dysfunction sounds scary but it’s pretty common, treatable, and may help diagnose other health issues. James Andrews investigates.

By James Andrews

ADOBESTOCK

We’ve straddled by a decent all been there: looking guy, made gorgeous under the influence of beer goggles, only to find that when the pants go down, we can’t get it up.

After embarrassingly attempting to soldier on, we finally write off the conquest as a failure before kicking him out with one last, “Sorry about this,” and slamming the door in despair. Indeed, the failed hook-up seems to be about as much of a gay rite of passage as coming out or fainting at the sound of “it’s Britney, bitch”.

Having waved him off, chances are that a majority of us will have hit up Dr Google.

But, according to the first site I consulted, a failure to get an erection is not likely due to my overindulgence at the club’s bar, but is instead symptomatic of serious erectile dysfunction (ED), and I need to purchase a $99 pack of pills from cantgetitup.com if I want to even hope of ever having sex again.

E.D. is associated with factors including diabetes, being overweight and/or smoking a lot, including cannabis.