For many years, impotence was not taken seriously by the medical profession, mainly because doctors were too embarrassed. The few who did try to do research sometimes had their papers on the subject turned down by medical journals.
Sufferers brave enough to try and discuss the problem with their doctors were usually fobbed off and told to resign themselves to an unavoidable condition.
Today, a pill called Viagra that is supposed to cure the problem in one dose has become the fastest-selling drug ever. Researchers in the subject are no longer the pariahs of their profession, but much-envied pioneers.
Last week, an American production company chronicled the alternative therapies available pre-Viagra. Tonight, the BBC's Horizon programme Sexual Chemistry traces the history of the drug (Pearl, 11.05pm).
So much for Americans being the ones who like to bare all and the British being reserved; unlike last week's programme, this one is not afraid to show the main subject of the documentary, the penis, close-up and in detail. This straightforwardness makes the problem much less personal.
In the American programme, we saw each impotence patient undergoing treatment from the neck up only.