TRENTON, N.J. – Imagine not being able to afford certainly one of life’s great pleasures – sex.
That’s true for a lot of older couples, doctors say. Soaring prices for prescription medicines for impotence along with other problems have put the remedies unrealistic for some.
Without insurance policy, Viagra and Cialis cost about $50 an herbal viagra, triple their 2010 list prices. The new “female Viagra,” a daily pill for low libido called Addyi, costs $800 per month. Older products for ladies also provide seen huge price run-ups, Truven Health Analytics data show.
“Most of them don’t get past the pharmacy counter once they begin to see the price,” says Sheryl Kingsberg, a school Hospitals-Cleveland Medical Center behavioral psychologist and researcher who counsels women and men.
What people actually shell out of pocket varies. Some insurance prescription plans, including Medicare, cover some of the medicines. Some plans don’t cover any, arguing they’re not medically necessary. Many require steep copayments or limit the amount of impotence pills per prescription.
“Once you get to a certain price point, sex turns into a financial decision,” says Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a erectile dysfunction specialist at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. “It requires many of the joy using this.”
Five of six specialists interviewed through the Associated Press say patients have said excitedly they’ve given up sex due to the cost.
Some doctors have gotten inventive.
Dr. Nachum Katlowitz, head of urology at New York’s Staten Island University Hospital, offers an alternative costing about $1 per pill at some pharmacies. The active component in Viagra – sildenafil – can also be in Pfizer’s now-generic blood pressure level pill Revatio but at one-fifth the dose.
One of his patients, a 62-year-old hospital technician, takes several of the blood pressure pills before sex.
“I couldn’t afford it basically needed to pay for Viagra,” says Robert, who asked that his last name not be used to protect his privacy.
He’s experienced modest improvements and says he and the wife of 28 years now enjoy sex twice as often.
