Viagra has really revolutionized this discussion about sex in the elderly. It's obviously a couple-related thing, as sex is a couple-related thing. What has happened, in terms of discussing this, or just the psychosocial aspects of sex in the elderly, that has maintained the ability to not only develop a new drug, but also develop things like this webcast to discuss this issue? Pat, you want to address that? How do we now, as a society, sort of embrace sex in the elderly, and get rid of the taboo that has generally been there about Grandma and Grandpa having sex?
PATRICIA BLOOM, MD: There's a lot of different aspects to that question. First of all, the aspect of what do elderly people themselves think about sex. I think it's true that we are going through a revolution, partly due to Viagra. But a lot of elderly people grew up with thinking that sex was something that was secret. You didn't talk about it. If you're interested in sex when you're an older man, you're a dirty old man. So just having brought it more out into the open, I think, has been helpful.
We still live in a society -- I can tell you that when I mention sex in the elderly, my teenage son goes "Ewww!" It's like there's still this whole thought that that's not something that's okay for elderly people to do. People get nervous thinking about it. So there's a real kind of dichotomy there.
