Stoicism and sexual desire

Interesting article I found today via Reddit: The Spirit is Willing, And So Is the Flesh, about the philosophy of Viagra.  It explicitly mentions some of Seneca's thoughts about impotence.

Would Seneca really have advised against taking Viagra?  Impotence is really a medical issue.  If you want to have sex, and you can't, but there's a way to make it better, then why not make it better?  Seneca wasn't the equivalent of a Christian Scientist, so he doesn't have any issue with medical treatment in general.

Seneca's point is that the lack of desire for sex is not a problem, and in fact may be a good thing.  If there is no desire, and there is no ability, then there is also no problem.  I think Seneca would say that taking Viagra is fine, as long as you really have sexual desire.  But don't take it because you want to have sexual desire.

The whole desire thing gets even more complicated when other people enter the equation.  If you are a wife, but have lost all sexual desire due to medication (it is a common side effect to some drugs), then is that OK or not?  Based on my reading of Seneca, as I stated above, the lack of desire is not a problem.  But let's assume that you are young, married and this lack of desire is medically abnormal.  This lack of desire affects not only you but your husband.  To solve it would be helpful to him, even if it shouldn't matter to you.  Is Seneca's advice really applicable?

Seneca didn't have these complexities to deal with.  From what I understand about Stoicism, I think the answer is that if sexual desire is gone, and we can't get it back, then we can be thankful that we've rid ourselves of a basic desire.  If we can get it back, we should, but we need to keep that desire under our control, and only use it in morally correct ways.

This articles makes me think about the positive effects of desire.  Stoicism sometimes seems anti-desire, but I think that's an oversimplification.  I think it's more about channeling our desires in a constructive direction.  I should probably write more about this in a future post.