Towards the end of last year, a billboard advertising campaign caused a sensation. The campaign used the slogan 'want longer lasting SEX?' to promote the services of an Australian-based company, Advanced Medical Institute (AMI), that sells treatments for men's sexual health problems.
For many of you, the larger than life advertising campaign went too far. The Advertising Standards Agency agreed, declaring in February 2009 that the posters were unsuitable for public display. But AMI are still hard to miss, with full page advertisements now appearing in national newspapers, promoting a nasal spray treatment for a common male sexual problem. The spray can be bought following either a face to face meeting at one of the company's clinics, or via a telephone consultation.
AMI's adverts promise a free, private and sympathetic consultation, but when we rang up we found that that claim didn't quite stand up.
Hard sell
Watchdog received a tip-off that callers were being given a hard sell. We wanted to see for ourselves so made several calls to the company. In each case, we told them that we were suffering from one of the conditions they promised to help with. Watchdog rang a total of seven times. Each time we spoke to AMI contracted doctors, who on the whole were quite professional, before being put through to a salesman to close the deal.
In almost half of the calls we made, we found our treatment at the hands of the salesmen to be decidedly unsympathetic. They certainly didn't mince their words when outlining what might happen if we didn't take the treatment.
As one salesman put it: "I've been dealing with patients. It has cost them two divorces, and I'll tell you what: they're paying maintenance for two ex-wives, their kids from their two ex-wives and another man is bringing up their children. That's what it cost."
In another call the salesman stated that: "If the relationship breaks up because of the sex you're only gonna have yourself to blame because you didn't make the decision."
The prices of the treatment offered varied, in some cases costing well over £1,000 for a 12-month programme. When our callers said they weren't sure, sometimes they became even more blunt.
A salesman said: "It sounds like you're coming up with an excuse to really, to really **** me off."
Another said: "I'm not interested in your excuses, Sam. I'm not interested whether you have the money or not."
And finally, how is this for sympathetic: "Not many women want to stick around with a man whose penis don't work."
Watchdog played some of our recordings to Doctor Geoff Hackett, a consultant in sexual medicine and former chair of the British Society for Sexual Medicine. He wasn't happy with what he heard: "I was horrified by some of the things I heard, particularly the innuendo that the partner would leave him. This selling process is going to create panic and concern to a man who's already very worried about his problem."
Dr Hackett went on to express concerns about the effect making such calls would have on a genuine sufferer: "I would expect this approach to do more harm than good in most of the patients. It's in essence bullying him into coming to the conclusion that he needs to pay for this treatment."
Watchdog also spoke to Dr Petra Boynton, an agony aunt specialising in sex and relationships. She was appalled at how callers were being treated. She said: "They often think there is nowhere else to go for help. And the worrying thing about these calls is that they reinforce that message. I can only imagine the suffering that people would experience having gone through that process. It's actually a very abusive experience, it's horrible. It's actually quite distressing to listen to."
Belittled and bullied
Your own sexual health isn't always an easy thing to talk about. It's certainly not easy to actually make that call for help. So when you do pluck up the courage, you deserve the sympathetic help they promise. Not to be belittled and bullied into handing over your cash.
There are several places to go for advice and help with sexual health problems:
The Sexual Dysfunction Association has factsheets and further information.
The NHS Direct website also has further information as well as a 24-hour help line: 0845 4647. Calls to NHS Direct cost a maximum of 5p per minute from a BT landline. The cost of calls from mobiles and other networks may vary. You may be charged a minimum cost per call. You can also go direct to your GP.
Relatecould also help if your problem is linked to, or affecting, your relationship.
AMI's response
When Watchdog contacted AMI they said: "AMI is a service provider company which arranges for treatments to be provided to men and women suffering from sexual dysfunction. Typical conditions include male premature ejaculation, male impotence or erectile dysfunction and female sexual arousal disorders.
"Patients who contact AMI are consulted by a fully registered and trained conventional medical doctor arranged by AMI. The doctors are not employed by AMI and decisions regarding the form of treatment which are recommended to the patient are made by the consulting doctor who is an independent contractor of AMI. To the extent that treatments involve the provision of medication, that medication is tailored to the individual consumer and provided in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations. Furthermore, when medications are provided to the patients, patients are provided with a patient booklet regarding the treatment. The patient booklets provide detailed information regarding the medication as well as general advice regarding the treatment.
"While AMI has recently opened clinics in the UK, AMI has been operating in Australia for 16 years and has successfully arranged for treatments to be provided to more than 400,000 patients. AMI is a publically listed group and is a high profile business which competes with major multinational pharmaceutical.
"The treatment programmes provided to AMI patients are tailored to the individual patient. These programmes typically incorporate doctor consultations, the cost of any medications (if prescribed), counselling and a 24-hour, seven-day per week customer helpline. AMI's charges to patients cover each of these products and services and are not limited to charges for medications. Any comments regarding the cost and nature of AMI's treatments need to take into account the full nature of the products and services being provided to patients. In addition, AMI has a customer service charter pursuant to which it has agreed that it will provide a refund to patients if it's unable to arrange for them to be provided with a successful treatment providing the patient tries each treatment options able to be organised by AMI.
"Large bodies of research in independent medical journals and literature discuss the potential for developing erectile dysfunction from untreated premature ejaculation. Furthermore, it's a well observed fact in our clinics, as seen in countless patients, that untreated premature ejaculation often gets worse, often with the development of erectile dysfunction. Our doctors are quite right to point this out to patients and arguably would be failing in their duty by not doing so. It's also the experience of the doctors at AMI, who have treated thousands of patients, that untreated PE often causes misery and leads to broken relationships or lack of confidence in forming new relationships and there is a wealth of independent research that supports this assessment.
"We don't condone statements being made by staff which are aggressive or alarmist and we train and monitor staff as best as practical to ensure this type of behaviour doesn't occur. When we've become aware of inappropriate behaviour by staff we've taken action to discipline and retrained those staff. In certain cases we've also terminated the employment of staff for making inappropriate or insensitive statements.
"Sexual dysfunction affects a broad spectrum of society. Some patients are pensioners, unemployed or in difficult financial circumstances (these conditions are not limited to wealthy patients). AMI seeks to make its treatment programmes widely available and offers discounts from time to time to people who are in difficult financial circumstances. This is not uncommon for a medical practice.
"These staff [clinical coordinators] are given regular training on dealing with patients. This training covers a wide range of issues and includes training on consumer law issues including training that false and misleading statements are not made to consumers. Staff/patient communications are monitored from time to time and staff are counselled where management becomes aware of improper communications being made to patients.
"Many of AMI's clinical coordinators are remunerated on a commission basis.
"The proportion of a clinical coordinator's income which is commission based varies from staff member to staff member and is subject to negotiation between AMI and the relevant staff member.
"AMI believes that its operations are fully compliant with all relevant laws and regulations. AMI disagrees with the decision reached by the ASA and has appealed the ASA's decision. However, AMI also notes that it's complied with the ASA's ruling by removing posters pending the hearing of the appeal."
