Virility is associated with all things masculine and so can include everything from hair on the chest to carnal vim to male fertility to a jaw built on the lines of a prognathous diesel engine to a voice like a subwoofer doing deep bass with gusto. The word has its origins in the Latin virilis, meaning manly, from vir, for man. The standard symptoms of a virile male, besides these abovementioned sterling qualities, include a healthy body, good fitness and corresponding brute strength. It can be extended, depending on culture, to courage, bellicosity, the length and fullness of one’s beard or moustache (perhaps symbolically standing in for other, less visible male attributes), the pungency or the quantity of food one can eat, and the number of girlfriends collected. The girlfriends, though, cannot claim to be virile, because the quality is reserved for the male of the species the women have to settle for nubility, fecundity and suchlike. Of course, because masculinity has often been associated with libido, treatments for low virility have often included such reminders of phallic glory as rhino horn plants like gingko balboa, gingseng, chilli peppers and green oats (the ones you reputedly sow when you are gadding about); sea horse flesh; tiger bone and wee wee; all other varieties of meat and a variety of dubious pills, unguents, potions and worse. But, it must be qualified that the horn has not been proven to directly contribute to the libido of the rhino – though the tiger should have some reason to complain.
The only treatment that clearly has been shown to have an effect on ibido – not virility, though – is sildenafil citrate. It produces a much localized libidinous effect by essentially sending in a gas (nitric oxide) to strategic area, resulting in a cascade of chemical events that deal with at least one of the problems associated with low libido. But virility, that’s quite another thing. Testosterone injections have been shown to help in cases where there is a shortage of this critical androgen. Fatigue – caused by extreme cold, starvation, infection, autoimmune disease, depression, anemia, heart, liver, cancer, and, yes, perhaps a less than salubrious meeting with the recently mentioned diesel engine – could also produce conditions that affect virility. There are also psychosomatic conditions that affect one’s perception of oneself, leading to feelings of inadequacy. And because virility has a huge component involving self-image and, correspondingly, self-esteem, all these listed factors affect it.