Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the most common male sexual dysfunction and its prevalance is higher in men with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress are important in the pathogenesis in both of ED and CVD. Also aging, diabetes, smoking, sedantary life style and obesity are risk factors of these disorders. CVD such as coronary artery disease, heart failure (HF), and ED share several common risk factors, including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, and dyslipidemia. It is important to examine men with ED because ED is a symptom which is observed before CVD appears.

Any activity, including science, and the doctor-patient relationship, depends on society. The institution of medicine is based on social relationships that are defined exclusively by experts, and this involves cultural definitions, values and techniques. The institutions define the right practices independently of the people involved. Social practices are full of conventions, uses, rituals, styles, modes, procedures, laws, etc. Institutional power defines the individual doctor-patient relationship. This scenario places limits on the positivist view of the patient-centered relationship. Social institutions make their social agents-doctors-first interested in outputs, products or results (cures, prescriptions, visits, demand, hospital admissions, diagnoses, morbidity, mortality), but not in social relationships, which they are frequently hidden or distorted. In this way, the doctor-patient relationship is frequently trivialized and treated in a child-like manner as a professional matter: it is presented in the biomedical literature as a stick figure; a "prehistoric" oversimplification that is little likes the current reality. The sociological approach brings doctor-patient relationship to the surface, making it visible, demystifying and problematizing it. The general practitioner should: 1. Go from medicalizing social relations, including the doctor-patient relationship, to socially contextualize medical practice and the doctor-patient relationship; And 2. Take charge of social problems from the consultation, understanding that social problems are part of the consultation and the doctor-patient relationship.