I’m Gorm Wagner. I’m a medical doctor by training, I have a Ph.D. in Sexology from San Francisco, but I have been connected for the last 30 years with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

What is the subject matter of your presentation?
It was about male sexuality, but seen from the side of a physiologist, so it was how the normal erection actually occurs, and what could go wrong, in order to explain the symptom we call erectile dysfunction, or impotence. What would that be? And therefore I went through normal anatomy and physiology, in order to tell how the pathological – that is, those disease-like – situations would seem. And that was meant mostly for physicians and young medical persons, but was made in a form so that it could be understood – I hope! – by lay people as well.

How would you summarize some of the new research in this area?
Well first of all, I think it’s important that anybody understands the basics of the mechanics of all these things, and what I also wanted to show is that the erection, which was the main thing I talked about, is a vascular phenomenon, and it actually could tell you quite a lot about your health situation. So we’re not only talking about sexual health, but health as such, because the vascular system, therefore arteriosclerotic diseases, diabetes, things like that, interfere with the normal erection.

Can erectile dysfunction be a warning sign of bad health?
It is absolutely, and that seems to be a very important thing that first of all, people should not, when they get to their 50’s and so on, just think “well, that is a matter of sexual function, and it’s not of that much interest.” As a matter of fact, it is something which is a sign, and as you call it, a red flag, of having a proper examination by a physician.