Use of odorants to treat male impotence, and article of manufacture therefor

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a non-invasive method of increasing blood flow to the penis to augment penile erection, and of treating vasculogenic impotence through the use of odorants.
The method is particularly useful for males who have a normal olfactory ability.
Administration of the odorant to a male subject will increase penile blood flow such that in a normosmic person for which the odor is hedonically positive, the blood flow will increase by about 2-40% compared to blood flow without being given the odorant.
Preferably, the odorant induces or enhances an erection sufficient for vaginal penetration.
Preferably, an odorant is administered that will increase penile blood flow by about 2-60%, preferably about 15-50%.
Preferred odorants are those that increase blood flow by about 20-40%, which include, for example, lavender, oriental spice, cola and orange odorants, and odorant mixtures such as lavender and pumpkin pie, doughnut and black licorice, pumpkin pie and doughnut, and lavender and doughnut.
Odorants useful in the present method are commercially available, for example, from International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.
(IFF), New York, N.
Y.
The precise magnitude of a loss of smell may be determined by means of an odor threshold test.
According to that test, an odorant substance such as butyl alcohol, phenyl ethyl alcohol or pyridine, is combined in an odorless liquid medium to provide a series of dilutions, or binary steps, of the odorant.
For each successive binary step up the dilution scale, the odorant is present, for example, at one half the concentration of the preceding step.
The highest concentration of the odorant usually provides the substance at an irritant level.
The patient is presented with the series of dilutions in ascending order, and is asked to compare each dilution step to at least one control stimulus, such as odorless propylene glycol.
A "normosmic" individual is able to detect the odor of an odorant substance without irritant sensations when the substance is presented at a concentration within a range of the average normal threshold for the substance