A doctor has to watch porn and measure erect penises, all in the name of medical science and breaking down the stigma of erectile dysfunction.
Dr John Connell is a Chief Scientific Officer at MAC Clinical Research, which has sites across the North West - including Prescot. He is currently working on the trial of a potential new drug to treat erectile dysfunction.
The trial is open to participation from people in Merseyside and £680 reimbursement plus travel expenses is offered in return. The study runs over two months and those involved will visit the clinic seven times to test the drug.
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Once at the clinic, the volunteer will take the drug or a placebo. In order to stimulate them, they then view pornography - which has been screened beforehand by Dr Connell and his colleagues to ensure that it is legal.
The effect of the drug can then be measured by a state-of-the-art piece of equipment - called a RigiScan, which assesses the size and rigidity of the volunteer's penis over a period of time.
Dr Connell, who has a PHD in modelling disease states in healthy people from the University of Manchester, spoke to the ECHO about his work, how the study is being carried out and the importance of men being open about their health.
Hoping that the study provides men who suffer with erectile dysfunction with a space to confront the issue, as well as breaking a taboo associated with sexual health, Dr Connell said: "Most people never discuss their own sexual activity with anyone else. If you have an issue with sexual function or erectile issues, you’re not going to go down the pub and discuss it with your mates.
"It’s very hard to go to your GP these days and talk to them about it. Many people are seeing this as an opportunity to test whether there is something they can do. The big thing that I want to stress is that if they find they have an issue, they need to do something about it."
Dr Connell hopes the trial can provide the long-term solution. He acknowledges that treatments - like Viagra - are already on the market, but hopes the trial drug can provide a more permanent fix to the problem. Namely, one which not only allows men to initiate an erection, but assists them in sustaining one.
The trial process
Explaining how the study works, Dr Connell said: "Currently, the men come into our unit - it’s a bit strange because you’ve got to come into a unit and go into a room to watch pornography, but it’s what people do in fertility clinics the world over.
"We make sure that when people come to the unit that we’ve got a pleasant environment where they can go and sit in a waiting area away from other people - it’s not like a seedy space with magazines or anything. They then get taken through by health professionals to see the doctors in a normal clinical environment.
"Then we have a very nice area where they can go and view the pornography, but it has to be private and away from everyone else."
If these conditions sound like an appealing way to make £680, people should be warned the study isn't open to everyone. Dr Connell and his colleagues check that the men interested in taking part actually have erectile problems and they're doing it for the right reasons. The long and short of it is that those involved must be between the ages of 18 and 59 and have erectile dysfunction but be otherwise healthy.
Another issue that arises with the study is the use of porn in a medical sphere. It may sound like a minefield, but Dr Connell said the trial is on solid ethical ground and, at this stage, porn is the stimulus they could realistically use.
He said: " The study we’re doing is ethically approved. There is a good scientific rationale that the only way of seeing that the drug is actually working is to stimulate.
"We can’t use people to stimulate, obviously. But further down the line, when it’s in a further stage, we’ll have to see whether it works in a relationship and that’s a true test of the drug.
"We need to have some way of seeing that there is a signal and this drug is worth developing. Unfortunately, there’s no other way than stimulating people by showing something that is pornography."
The porn used in the trial must be checked beforehand. That task belongs to Dr Connell and his colleagues, who work to ensure that a wide selection is on offer - and that it's legal.
He explained: "If you take 100 guys who are going to watch some pornography, what turns you on is completely different for everybody - people are attracted to different things. We want to give the drug the best chance of working, so we can see a signal that the drug is having an effect.
"For that reason, we allow people to self-select pornography that they’re interested in. We have to make sure that it is consensual, it’s not under age, it is legal. If someone’s interested in something really weird, then we wouldn’t actually do it.
"Every person is self-selecting what would give them a chance of arousal. They take the drug and two to three hours after taking the drug, they’ll see if it has an effect."
Measuring said effect is achieved in a number of ways. Dr Connell wants the drug to help men generate an erection and sustain it - the RigiScan device works to test whether they can.
He added: "There are a number of ways that we can measure the effect. One is they can report that they’ve got erections and they’re aroused by the pornography.
"And the other thing that we’ve been doing is using a thing called a RigiScan device. This is basically two elastic bands that go around the base and the head of the penis - they are not in any way painful - and every 15 seconds they will measure the rigidity of the penis and we are able to look at the data and see how people are reacting to the pornography."
Though people may think of erectile dysfunction as a problem which exclusively affects older men, Dr Connell stressed that their younger counterparts should not think they are immune from the condition. It can affect any man and the doctor wants all to be free from performance issues.
He said: " We live in an incredibly stressful society and it’s increasingly common for younger people to have this problem. They need to know what to do if they have this problem - some people can’t even speak to their partner about it and it will make their life miserable.
"People should never accept it, whether you’re 20, whether you’re 30, whether you’re 80. If you want to have a sexual life, you can have one, you’ve just got to find the right solution and that’s what we're trying to achieve."
If you’d like to know more about local research into potential new treatment options for erectile dysfunction, visit researchforyou.co.uk
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