Impotence
Related: intercourse - men - penetration - penis - sex
Erectile dysfunction in fiction: The Sun also Rises (1926) - Ernest Hemingway - Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) - D. H. Lawrence - sex, lies, and videotape (1989) - Steven Soderbergh
Compare: frigidity
Erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction, also known as impotence, is the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis for satisfactory sexual intercourse regardless of the capability of ejaculation. There are various underlying causes, many of which are medically reversible.
Due to its personal nature, the subject has been taboo for a long time, and is the stuff of many urban legends. Since the 1930s, folk remedies have been advertised widely for the condition. The introduction of sildenafil (ViagraŽ) in the 1990s caused a second wave of public attention, propelled in part by heavy advertising.
The Latin term impotentia coeundi describes simple inability to insert the penis into the vagina. It is now mostly replaced by more precise terms. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erectile_dysfunction [Dec 2005]