Experts have advised men to expect a natural decrease in sexual urge and performance as they hit 50 years and above , stressing that men also experience menopause. They expressed regret that most men above 50 tend to handle decline in s*x drive and prowess by relying on aphrodisiacs, which, they say, is not necessary.

Reacting to a shocking discovery that over 90 percent of aphrodisiacs consumed in Lagos State were done by men in their 50s and 60s during a National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) TRUSCAN surveillance exercise of fake drugs, Consultant Physician, Dr James Atufe urged this category of men to desist from the abuse of aphrodisiacs or risk a fatal outcome. Investigations during the NAFDAC surveillance exercise showed that there exist a thriving aphrodisiacs market in all the pharmacies and patent medicine stores combed, majority being imported fake generic types from India and China that sell between N200 and N300 par packet.

When queried, the pharmacists and patent medicine dealers involved in marketing and distribution of the s*x stimulants disclosed that it was a booming market, hence the large stocks found and seized from them, adding, however, that the consumers were mainly men in their 50s and 60s, who bought on self prescription. “Actually, the men don’t come with doctor’s prescription but say that their friends prescribed the drugs for them,” Mrs. Bunmi Adelabu, a patent medicine dealer told a combined team of NAFDAC officials, mobile policemen and newsmen during a raid in Lagos Road, Epe.

There was large seizures of the fake aphrodisiacs in all the local government combed by NAFDAC during the TRUSCAN surveillance exercise in Lagos.

Explaining the trend, Dr Atufe said as a result of decreased libido with progressive age, “men do have their menopause from 50, sometimes from late forties.“However, I consider somebody using aphrodisiacs at 60 to be old for it. And is at great risk.” “When sexual drive is decreased as menopause occurs, it is quite different from erectile dysfunction. Many of those aphrodisiacs are for erectile dysfunction. The abuse of it may be as a result of social factors like men, who are not satisfied with one s*x partner. So in a bid to satisfy multiple s*x partners, they tend to use drugs,” he said.

Prof. Sade Ogunsola, professor of Bacteriology, Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) condemned the abuse of aphrodisiacs, saying self medication could be fatal because most drugs had contra-indications or side-effects. Ogunsola, who spoke with us harped on the need to find the underlying cause of any condition through reliable diagnostic tests in accredited laboratories. In his reaction, Dr Oyetunji Soriyan, Clinical Pathologist pointed out that when cigarette was discovered to cause cancer, a warning was put on cigarette packets. “Likewise, there should be a warning on the packet of any drug of the side-effects or contra-indications.”

Dr Atufe explained that active ingredients on aphrodisiacs work on the cardiovascular system. Another survey showed that the poor use of local aphrodisiacs, some of which are herbal mixtures with not too defined mechanism of operation.

Prof. Olukemi Odukoya, Professor of Pharmacognosy, University of Lagos explained that some local aphrodisiacs have a combination of active ingredients that sustain erection and at the same time bring down the blood pressure. “That is why old people use them freely. The mechanism of operation will depend on the mixture of active ingredients used in their preparations,” she said.

Pharm. (Dr) Bertram Abata disclosed that the effect of aphrodisiacs is transient. According to him, “every drug you take has half life. If you take a drug, it builds up in the system and then it is excreted. The half life is when the generality of the drug has dropped in pharmacological activity, that is, the actual biological action. You have to top up the drug.

“That is the principle that brought about dosage in pharmaceutics. You tell a patient take a particular drug two times or three times a day. What is called Mean Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), that is the least concentration in the blood for the drug to be active.

Atufe said aphrodisiacs don’t start the s*x urge, the user must have contact with the opposite s*x, be stimulated to trigger off the action of the drug. “You have to come in contact with the opposite s*x, there must be a stimulus before it starts working. You may take an aphrodisiacs and don‘t have an erection. But that does not mean it will have no effect on the cardiovascular system.”

It was also gathered that all energy drinks are aphrodisiacs but of a lower potency level. Dr Yemi Ayorinde said, “Energy drinks stimulate s*x, they also energize. I know a girl, who anytime she wants to meet the boyfriend, she buys two cans of energy drinks. But it is not on the same potency level like Viagra.

“You cannot be as sexually active as you were in your 20s, 30s and 40s by the time you are in your 50s and 60s. I advise ageing men to look for some spiritual, social or intellectual activities that will engage them.