title: Integrating partners into erectile dysfunction treatment: improving the sexual experience for the couple.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common condition estimated to affect more than 150 million men worldwide. ED should be regarded as a shared sexual problem which has significant detrimental effects both on the men who experience this condition and on their partners.
  Evidence shows that the partner plays a key supportive role in the man's ED treatment and in successful long-term ED therapy. Including the partner in consultations may highlight discordant attitudes and communication problems between couple members which may indicate treatment acceptance or rejection, or realistic or unrealistic treatment expectations.
  Most patients with ED consult their physician in the absence of their partner. Therefore, involving the partner in therapy can be challenging. Two options which physicians should consider are: encouraging the patient to bring the partner into the office and, often more realistically, seeking information about, and providing information to, the partner, via the patient.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of these recommendations is to provide practical guidance on treating couples affected by ED, and suggest techniques that may be helpful in integrating the partner into the process of ED treatment.
authors.affiliation: St Peter's Andrology Centre, London, UK. john@sexualmedicine.org
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rubio-Aurioles
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCabe
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Eardley
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Speakman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buvat
authors.forename: I Sáenz
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: de Tejada
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010726:Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D010726:Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors