Erectile dysfuction : Are you affected?

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

 

Erectile dysfunction, a condition which affects men, is the "failure to sustain an erection that can deliver sufficient stimulation or deposit correctly semen to the opposite sex is dysfunction of erection." 

 

As Pokeyourmind, after receiving queries through the Facebook page, i followed up with a gynaecologist.

 

Dr Mwanahamuntu: The condition is a result of either psychological failure, fear, emotional disconnectivity in matters of sex but it can also be a result of many diseases that affect nerve and blood supply such as diabetes, high blood pressure, painful lesions of the penis to name a few.

Pokeyourmind: What symptoms should men look out for?

Dr Mwanahamuntu:  Symptoms include failed initiation of sex or even completion of penetrative sex without use of a prosthesis penis (a  device designed to make a part of the body work better). The penis will simply be limp or too soft to penetrate the receptacle vagina.

Pokeyourmind:  How common is this condition?

Dr Mwanahamuntu: The exact stastics can not be precise as all sexual conditions normal are but a third of suffered of diabetes, high blood pressure and mentally stressed people plus alcoholics will have this condition once in a while or always.

Pokeyourmind: What type of treatment is available?

 

Dr Mwanahamuntu: Mostly treating the cause is a sure solution. Other treatments have involved use of medications that have selective actions on blood vessels expansionism. Sometimes surgery that link lower abdominal blood vessels directly to the main blood supply of the penis have been used. Desperate measures of using false penis also save situations and interpersonal affection.

Pokeyourmind: Can the use of sex boosters’ contribute to erectile dysfunction?

Dr Mwanahamuntu: They don’t but should be used with consultation of physicians. Remember, size of penis is not critical as the nerves that a penis targets in the vagina are just 2 to 3 centimeters deep. It is is futile to enlarge a penis and remain the lazy man.

Pokeyourmind: What are some of the side-effects of using sex boosters such as the popular Mutototo?

Dr Mwanahamuntu: Mutototo has no researched dose and side effects. It's production is not regulated and am not sure whether it kills or helps people.

Pokeyourmind: Is there an age when it’s appropriate to use sex boosters?

Dr Mwanahamuntu: What limits the use of these drugs is the overall performance of other organs summoned to jointly participate in sex. For example the heart. There is no point to have a penis performing stronger than ones heart as this is a death trap.

PYM/

 

Address youth myths on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

Nkonde speaking at the Third National HIV Prevention Convention.
Pic by Unicef Zambia.
 

In Zambia, it is estimated that every three hours, a young person gets infected with HIV. To counter this, the country has committed itself to reducing the rate of new infections by 50 percent by 2015, using a combination of prevention strategies such as male circumcision.  

However, according to 18 year old Solomon Nkonde “adolescents have the lowest levels of male circumcision amongst all the age groups in Zambia. There are a lot of reasons as to why our fellow brothers do not want to get circumcised, among them; fear of severe pain, fear of losing sensitivity and lack of information on the benefits and how the circumcision process is performed.”

Nkonde who represented voices of the young people at the just ended Third National HIV Prevention Convention, added that “while other young people felt it was not part of their culture, others wanted to know what was done with their prepuce after it got removed. In addition, there were also misconceptions on the motives of the sensitisers and the donors supporting male circumcision.”

To rebattle these myths, the youths shared various interventions that would help scale-up male circumcision among the youth.

“Parents should be sensitised on the importance of male circumcision so that they can take their children for circumcision as early as birth and massive sensitisation should be done in both rural and urban areas with young people as role models too,” urged Nkonde.

In addition to creating more centres for male circumcision in rural areas, the youths called on government to train more male doctors to conduct operations as most boys were shy to be cut by females.

UNICEF in collaboration with the Zambian government brought together 50 adolescents from 10 provinces for a Pre-HIV Prevention Convention workshop where they shared issues on HIV.

Nkonde also spoke on behalf of more than 15, 000 young U-Reporters aged between 10-24 years who participated in real-time via SMS from all the 10 provinces.

U-ReportZambia is an innovative SMS platform designed by the National AIDS Council and UNICEF to accelerate HIV response for adolescents and young people towards an HIV-free generation in Zambia.

It provides to adolescents and young people an opportunity to access comprehensive information on HIV and any other sexually transmitted infections by SMS. PYM

 

Male circumcision: which way forward?

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

Male medical circumcision: should it be a prerequisite to civic center, church or any other lawfully sanctioned marriage?