TY - JOUR
T1 - Addressing Health-Care System Inequities in the Management of Erectile Dysfunction
T2 - A Call to Action
AU - Burnett, Arthur L.
AU - Edwards, Natalie C.
AU - Barrett, Tonya M.
AU - Nitschelm, Krista D.
AU - Bhattacharyya, Samir K.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Boston Scientific.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common, burdensome, and costly urologic condition strongly related to all aspects of general health, from physical to mental. ED has profound consequences as it may interfere physical well-being, quality of life (QoL), self-esteem, relationships, self-worth, and productivity. It is therefore important to ensure that all types of effective ED treatments are consistently accessible to patients. While federal and state mandates ensure access to treatment for women’s breast health, female-factor infertility, and gender affirmation to ensure that these individuals do not experience a diminished QoL, there are no comparable mandates for men’s sexual and reproductive health. The burden of ED necessitates a call to action to improve the accessibility of ED treatments. The call to action steps include: (a) coverage for pharmacological, surgical, and other ED treatments should be viewed in the same way as coverage for other health issues, whether male or female and regardless of the stages of treatment, physical dysfunction, or physical changes; (b) American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines for the management of ED should be followed, including implementation of templates in electronic medical records (EMRs) to support adherence to the guidelines; and (c) coverage criteria should explicitly state that the criteria are intended to support gender equity for sexual and reproductive health care and should not be used to prevent men from receiving medically necessary ED treatments. This call to action offers a pathway to support every man who seeks treatment for ED as a medically necessary intervention by removing systemic health-care barriers.
AB - Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common, burdensome, and costly urologic condition strongly related to all aspects of general health, from physical to mental. ED has profound consequences as it may interfere physical well-being, quality of life (QoL), self-esteem, relationships, self-worth, and productivity. It is therefore important to ensure that all types of effective ED treatments are consistently accessible to patients. While federal and state mandates ensure access to treatment for women’s breast health, female-factor infertility, and gender affirmation to ensure that these individuals do not experience a diminished QoL, there are no comparable mandates for men’s sexual and reproductive health. The burden of ED necessitates a call to action to improve the accessibility of ED treatments. The call to action steps include: (a) coverage for pharmacological, surgical, and other ED treatments should be viewed in the same way as coverage for other health issues, whether male or female and regardless of the stages of treatment, physical dysfunction, or physical changes; (b) American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines for the management of ED should be followed, including implementation of templates in electronic medical records (EMRs) to support adherence to the guidelines; and (c) coverage criteria should explicitly state that the criteria are intended to support gender equity for sexual and reproductive health care and should not be used to prevent men from receiving medically necessary ED treatments. This call to action offers a pathway to support every man who seeks treatment for ED as a medically necessary intervention by removing systemic health-care barriers.
KW - access to care
KW - erectile dysfunction
KW - gender equity
KW - health-care issues
KW - medically necessary
KW - policy
KW - sexuality
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U2 - 10.1177/1557988320965078
DO - 10.1177/1557988320965078
M3 - Article
C2 - 33045918
AN - SCOPUS:85092551410
VL - 14
JO - American Journal of Men's Health
JF - American Journal of Men's Health
SN - 1557-9883
IS - 5
ER -