Older Australians seeking to maintain an active sex life are increasingly turning to telehealth services to address issues such as erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE), according to Apex Health co-founder Tom Bailey.
Bailey said for men in their 60s and beyond, the biggest hurdles to overcoming ED or PE are often psychological rather than medical, particularly embarrassment and stigma.
“I think it’s a difficult conversation, one to have with your partner, and two, just being men seeking a solution to a problem like that [makes them] worried about the stigma and the masculine side of it,” Bailey said.
Telehealth had helped remove some of those barriers, he said, allowing older men to speak more openly about intimate health issues from the privacy, security and comfort of their homes.
“They can be having these conversations by phone and they’re a lot more open on the phone than they may be in person, so I think having that telehealth option really makes them feel a lot more comfortable and willing to talk about the problems rather than in person,” Bailey said.
Privacy concerns also extend beyond consultations to the dispensing of medication, Bailey added.
“I think people can get a bit worried about going into a pharmacy to get a script dispensed,” he said.
“As a patient, people like the privacy aspect of doing all this via the phone and having confidentiality.”
Bailey said Apex places strong emphasis on patient confidentiality.
“We use robust cybersecurity measures and take every step to make sure that patient details are all kept confidential,” he said.
Workload and broader life pressures are also contributing to sexual health problems later in life, according to Bailey, who said many Australians are now working well into their 60s and 70s.
“I think people are working longer than they previously did,” he said. “So they’re carrying that stress later into their 60s and into their 70s.”
Bailey added that other age-related factors can compound the issue, including long-term medication use and lifestyle habits.
“There are other health issues, like now we’re living longer and we’re on more medications than we have been before, and those medications can affect your libido or your blood flow. I think obesity, smoking, inactivity are also things that would affect it too.”
Bailey said Apex takes a holistic approach when treating older patients, looking beyond ED or PE in isolation.
“We sort of look at it holistically like what other medications a person is taking that could be causing it,” he said. “We recommend exercise, look at their smoking. We can also prescribe things that can help them come off smoking as well.”
Causes can also be psychological, linked to stress, injury or life events.
“It often comes back to, you know, psychosomatic things. It might be an event that happened in their life or a stressful breakup that’s caused ED,” Bailey said. “It’s very much linked to the brain as well as like physiologically.”
Bailey said demand from older patients remains strong, with many seeking to remain sexually active well into later life.
“We see a lot of people over 50 and 60,” he said.
While Apex does not formally track success rates, Bailey said patient feedback suggests positive outcomes.
“I don’t know what the success rate numbers would be, but many patients come back to us,” he said. “Patients tell us they value having access to care and the opportunity to talk openly about these issues.”
This article was sponsored by Apex Health.
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