It's a Disease If People Want a Cure

The New York Times, writing about a new Pfizer drug designed to help men who suffer from premature ejaculation, resurrects a stale old debate about what constitutes a "legitimate" disease.

It's a discussion that has been raised by critics of the pharmaceutical industry in connection with a multitude of new therapies--treating mental illness, cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, female sexual dysfunction and more--over the past couple of decades.

The Times article acknowledges that premature ejaculation is a problem, but questions whether it is a medical condition, quoting Leonore Tiefer, a clinical associate professor at NYU's School of Medicine: "Rapid ejaculation as opposed to slow ejaculation is common, but there is slow and fast everything in the world: slow and fast walkers, slow and fast eaters, slow and fast breathers... It is going to become a problem once enough publicity is given to it."

It seems to me that if people have a problem that makes their life less pleasant, and if there's some sort of product that can eliminate or reduce that problem and make their life more pleasant, putting a label on that problem (is it a "real" disease?) or on the product (is it a "real" therapy?) is neither relevant nor helpful.