Let’s talk about erectile dysfunction. I really want to destigmatize this because it’s a really common problem.
Once you get to 40, lots of people are suffering from problems with erections, and also before 40 they are for various reasons too. Once you hit 50, 1 in 3 men are unable to achieve and sustain an erection long enough for penetration unless they have some help from a tablet or something else. Once you hit 60, it’s 1 in 2, so that means if you’re 60 or above, 50% of the guys you know are going to have problems maintaining an erection without a bit of help. Once you hit 70, only 1 in 5 can do it without help. If you think that you’re alone and that nobody else has this problem, and you’re the only one, I really want you to know that you’re not. It’s just that most penis owners don’t chat to their mates about it.
There’s a lot of different causes of erectile dysfunction: age is one, anxiety is one, the other is diabetes doesn’t help at all – people with diabetes type 2 or type 1 often have trouble with maintaining an erection. Spinal injuries and any type of pelvic surgery, so we all know that prostate cancer can cause impotence, but it’s not just prostate cancer. Having hip replacements can sometimes cause it, any kind of problems that are going on in your pelvis that might cause inflammation in your pelvis can have a negative effect on your function of your penis.
The thing I think is the most surprising is that often I’ll have guys come in, they’ll sit in my clinic, and they’ll have a big scar down their knee, and they’ll be really embarrassed when they say to me “oh my penis isn’t working anymore”. I’ll ask them about their knee, and they often look at me a bit crazy like “what’s my knee got to do with my penis?” and I’ll say how come you with that big scar on your knee and they’ll say, “oh I just had a knee replacement” and I ask them why, they say “oh I just got old, and I wore it out”. So, it’s kind of weird to me that it’s okay for your knee, your shoulder or you hip or whatever to get worn out, but we think our genitals should just defy age and keep working indefinitely?
So, the very first important point I want to make is this is a common problem, and you’re not alone. So, please try and get some help. Next, I’d like to talk about the options for treatment, so there’s pills. Everybody has heard about the little blue, but there isn’t just one pill option. There’s actually four different options, and some work better for some people than others. So, if your mate tells you he uses pill ‘X’ – the blue one, and it works great for him, and you’ve tried it and it doesn’t, then it doesn’t mean that there’s no option for you. There’s a lot of other options, and people respond differently to different medications. So, it’s really important that you see a health professional that knows about this, and they can go through the options. Don’t just think I’ve been given Viagra or Cialis or whatever it is, that didn’t work so there’s no hope.
There’s also penile injections – which please check out my website or other videos and you’ll find out all about those. They work brilliantly for most people.
There’s also surgery for erectile dysfunction that works really well, and I talk more about that in other videos too if you want to watch.
So, let’s not be embarrassed about talking about Erectile Dysfunction, let’s go and talk to our mates about it, they’ve probably had experiences as well and you won’t feel lonely. Or, listen to The Penis Project podcast, I talk about this a lot and you’ll listen to a lot of men’s real life experiences, as well as options of treatment. The other place you can go is my website, and I actually have a road map, erectile dysfunction program that you can do at home. This will tell you everything you need to know about erectile dysfunction and give you some options, and you can figure out what’s best for you and some exercises that you can do to improve your erectile problems. You can also book an online consult, but I really encourage you to do the program first, because you’ll get much more out of the consult when you’re armed with lots of knowledge and lots of questions to ask.
