Unsurprisingly, patients are testifying in a court case against the Advanced Medical Institute (AMI), the company with the huge billboards which promised ‘longer lasting sex’, that nasal spray is not the answer to erectile dysfunction. When customers claimed the nasal spray did not work, AMI continued to bill them, insisting they undergo penile injections as a condition of getting out of an 18-month contract, totalling more than $3000.
The Federal Court case of ‘unconscionable conduct’ against AMI is being brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with further allegations that AMI promised refunds, but failed to fully disclose conditions of such refunds.
So those clients who found the nasal spray ‘not fit for the purpose’, as one witness claimed, were then required to undergo injections and other treatments while still being billed about $200 a month. One patient went so far as to cancel his credit card to avoid the ongoing billing.
Read more from The Age.
Opinion: Buying better sex
At one level it is positive that society is finally waking up to the fact that, not only do older people still want to have sex, they want to have it often and for longer. So Dr Jack Vaisman, founder of AMI, clearly understood that there would be a market for a product which promised just that for those with erectile function.
How sad, then, that the promise seems to have been based on false medicine, and that many clients across Australia still have the original problem, while being thousands of dollars poorer.
It would appear that companies such as AMI are preying on the pride of those who want a solution which does not involve the family doctor. And this is understandable. A quick fix is appealing to most of us, particularly one which is so discreet maybe even your spouse won’t know. And it is highly likely that many older Australians are under-educated when it comes to mature male sexuality, as this topic is rarely given the considered attention it deserves.
YOURLifeChoices website continues to share useful information on erectile dysfunction, including last year’s article by Bettina Arndt, who emphasised the common occurrence of erectile dysfunction:
‘Every second man over 50 has erectile problems. This rises to 60% of 60-year-olds and 70% of 70-year-olds. Each year 20,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. The tragedy is that many of the men with these problems end up not seeing their local doctor, but paying thousands of dollars to organisations that rip them off with treatments like nasal technology that don’t work. Stay away from those sharks. I’m happy to help people find experts to help them.’
The saddest thing of all will be if AMI’s clients are seen simply as silly old fools who were soon parted from their money. They are men with a genuine need who deserved far better than the treatment they received.
What about you? Do you think these men were foolish to shell out thousands of dollars to get their sex lives back? Is it merely a case of ‘buyer beware’ or is there more to it than that?
