Last Tuesday, The Complete Sexual Health Blog for Men and Women wrote a rather incomplete post about performance anxiety. I was interested initially by the title, which asks: How Can Performance Anxiety Ruin Your Date Night? A provocative question, one I hoped would blastoff into a discussion to link the pressure to perform well on a date with the pressure to perform well in the bedroom. Dates reaffirm the societal pressure to behave based on gender scripts–perhaps it is the same societal pressure that causes men to feel sexually inadequate. I started to wonder if sexual dysfunction occur more frequently in the earlier stages of a relationship? Or do long-time couples battle these issues as well? I couldn’t wait to see what The Complete Sexual Health Blog had to say on the matter…

It turns out nothing. The article instead talked briefly about performance anxiety before turning into an infomercial for male-enhancement methods. Erectile dysfunction, they claim, stems from anxiety regarding size and sexual prowess. They continue to prescribe male-enhancement pills as a cure-all for sexual anxiety, and sent the reader on their way.

Oh no. Let me tell you right now, that’s a band-aid for a battle-wound. While insecurities about sexual performance or size certainly plague the minds of many men, they aren’t the cause of the problem. They are the symptom.  Taking a pill to enhance your size or your performance may momentarily subside the symptoms of sexual dysfunction, however it leaves the deeper issues unaddressed. Why did you feel paralyzing pressure during sex? How do you perceive sexual performance, and how do you gauge if you’ve performed well or poorly? Questions like these transcend the biological and physical mishaps and enter the psychological cause for performance anxiety. You can’t find the crucial answers with male enhancements—unless you consider self-exploration and analysis a male enhancement. Which wouldn’t be totally unfair.