Men in North Yorkshire are less likely to be prescribed the wonder drug Viagra and other impotence treatments than virtually anywhere else in the country.

But health professionals said it did not necessarily mean that North Yorkshire men were more virile.

York GP Dr Tony Sweeney said it could simply be that northern men were more reluctant to come forward with impotence problems than their southern counterparts.

Department of Health figures show that the North Yorkshire Health Authority spends £367 a year per 1,000 male adults on helping men with impotence.

That includes spending on Viagra but also on other treatments for the condition.

The figure is well below the national average, £525, and just a third of the figure spent on curing impotence by doctors in St Helens and Knowsley, on Merseyside, the highest in the country.

Only six health authorities spend less on helping impotent men than North Yorkshire.

Dr Sweeney, a family doctor at York's Tang Hall Lane surgery, said doctors were still waiting for guidance from the Government on prescription of Viagra.

But he said in North Yorkshire, the policy was that where GPs felt a patient needed Viagra, they prescribed it.

He said: "There is certainly no pressure on GPs in North Yorkshire not to prescribe."

He added many men were still reluctant to come forward for help.

He said: "Impotence is a big problem, both physically and psychologically, and can cause a great deal of distress both to men and their partners."

Prof Mark Baker, medical director of North Yorkshire Health Authority, said the Department of Health figures on spending probably did not take into account all local services.

Treatment of impotence was in a "state of flux" as health authorities waited for the Government's final guidelines on Viagra, he said.

But he added the figures were "something that the health authority (was) looking into."

Viagra is to take its place in the Millennium Dome as one of the great innovations of the 20th century, it was announced today.

The drug was unveiled as one of 201 Millennium products by the Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers.

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