Inflatable penile prostheses are implanted during outpatient surgery. Once they are part of a man’s body, they enable him to have an erection whenever he desires. The use of a prosthesis preserves penile sensation, orgasm and ejaculation for most men.
The most commonly used penile implant consists of a pair of inflatable cylinders that are surgically implanted in the erection chambers of the penis. The cylinders are connected through tubing to a reservoir of fluid under the lower abdominal muscles, and to a pump inside the scrotal sac.
To inflate the penile prosthesis, the man compresses the pump a number of times to transfer fluid from the reservoir to the cylinders. This causes the penis to become erect. When inflated, the prosthesis makes the penis stiff and thick, which is very similar to a natural erection.
A penile prosthesis does not change the sensation on the skin of the penis or a man’s ability to achieve orgasm or ejaculate. Pressing on a deflation valve attached to the pump returns the fluid to the reservoir, which returns the penis to a flaccid state.
The surgical procedure is performed through one or two small incisions that are generally well hidden. Other people will be unable to tell that a man has an inflatable penile prosthesis. Complications following surgery are not common, but primarily include infection and mechanical device failure.
Approximately 95% of penile implant surgeries are successful in producing erections that enable men to have sexual intercourse. Moreover, patient satisfaction questionnaires show that up to 90% of men who have undergone penile implants say they would choose the surgery again, and overall satisfaction ratings are higher than those reported by men using oral medication or penile injection therapy.
Education about sex, sexual behaviors, and sexual responses may help a man overcome his anxieties about sexual dysfunction.
Talking honestly with your partner about your needs and concerns may also help to overcome many barriers to a healthy sex life.
Medication
Medications such as
sildenafil (Viagra®),
vardenafil (Levitra®),
or tadalafil (Cialis®)
may help improve sexual function in men by increasing blood flow to the penis. Men who are on medicines that contain nitrates such as nitroglycerine should not take oral ED medications. The combination of nitrates and these specific medications can cause low blood pressure (hypotension).
The most common side effects of these medications are indigestion, nasal congestion, flushing, headaches and a temporary visual disturbance.
Mechanical aids
Aids such as vacuum devices and penile constriction rings serve as erectile aids for some men.
A vacuum constriction device (above) is a cylinder that is placed over the penis. The air is pumped out of the cylinder, which draws blood into the penis and causes an erection. The erection is maintained by slipping a band off of the base of the cylinder and onto the base of the penis. The band can stay in place for up to 30 minutes. The vacuum device can be safely used to treat most causes of erectile failure. Lack of spontaneity, discomfort, and cumbersomeness of the device seem to be the biggest concerns of patients.
Men are taught how to inject medications directly into the erection chambers of the penis to create an erection. Injection therapy is effective in treating a wide variety of erection issues caused by blood vessel, nerve and psychological conditions.
The tissue that causes you to get an erection (erectile tissue) is a muscle. Going long periods of time without an erection is unhealthy for erectile tissue and may damage it.
We believe that having erections keeps erectile tissue healthy. A penile injection helps you have an erection. It works best if it’s given about 5 to 15 minutes before you want an erection.
Using a tiny needle and syringe, the man injects a small amount of medicine into the side of his penis. The medicine relaxes the blood vessels, allowing blood to flow into the penis. This treatment has been widely used and accepted since the early 1980s. The three most common medicines are prostaglandin E1 (alprostadil), papaverine (Papacon®), and phentolamine (Regitine®).
The most common side effects are pain and penile scarring (fibrosis). In extremely rare cases, patients with cerebral and vascular disease or severe cardiovascular diseases might not be able to tolerate the dizziness and high blood pressure occasionally caused by injection therapy.
A painful erection that lasts longer than two to three hours is called priapism and may occur with injection therapy. This can be lessened with proper dosing and by following the treatment guidelines.
The 3 most commonly used medications for injection therapy are Trimix, Bimix, and Papaverine. Most men begin injection therapy with Trimix, which is a mixture of 3 ingredients: alprostadil, phentolamine, and papaverine. These ingredients work by relaxing the smooth muscle and opening the blood vessels in your penis, causing an erection. Your APP will decide whether Trimix or a different medication is best for you.
Psychology and sex therapies
Psychological causes may contribute to erectile failure even when there is a clear organic cause.
Therapy with a trained counselor can help a person address feelings of anxiety, fear or guilt that may have an impact on sexual dysfunction.
Sex therapy can be beneficial to most men when counseling is provided by a skilled sex therapist. Sex therapy also helps a man’s partner accept and cope with the problems.
A patient whose ED has a clear psychological cause should receive sex therapy counseling before any invasive treatments are pursued.
When you seek out sex therapy, you need to look for a relationship or marriage counsellor, psychotherapist or psychologist who uses specialised clinical skills and theoretical knowledge about human sexuality. In addition to having post-graduate training in couples and marriage counselling, we get specific sex therapy training to help you deal with your sexual difficulties or concerns.
Sex therapists are qualified counsellors or healthcare professionals who have had extensive training in human sexuality, in addition to being well-trained couples and marriage counsellors and therapists.
Sexual issues can often cause distress and conflict in relationships and sex therapists can assist you with these difficulties.
Some sexual concerns include:
Lack of sexual knowledge or education
Believing wrong/harmful information about sex from the media or religious institutions
Struggle to understand sex, desire, eroticism, privacy versus secrecy
Erectile and/or ejaculation difficulties
Performance anxiety and lack of confidence
Problems reaching orgasm
Low sexual desire concerns for both men and women
Intimacy problems
Relationship and marriage difficulties
Painful sex or intercourse
Sexual problems or changes due to illness, ageing, surgery or stress
Compulsive sexual behaviours, or out of control sexual behaviours (wrongly called sexual addiction)
Sexual trauma
Questioning your sexual identity, orientation or preferences
LGBTQI issues
Gender identity issues
Interest in kink
Cross dressing or other fetishes
Hormone
Low hormone levels may play a role in ED. Hormone replacement in the form of topical gels, creams, patches, injections and pellets are only used after physician evaluation.
What are the differences between erectile dysfunction drugs? About half of men ages 40 to 70 have erectile dysfunction (ED) to some degree, although only one in 10 report a complete inability to have erections. Taking an ED drug produces an erection sufficient to start intercourse in about 70% of otherwise healthy men.
Does it make any difference which of the four drugs for erectile dysfunction you take? “Yes, there can be differences,” says Dr. Louis Liou, chief of urology at Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance in Boston. “For new patients, I have them try different ones to see what works best.”
Sildenafil (Viagra) is often the first drug your doctor offers. It’s been on the market longest and its side effects and the medications and foods it interacts with are well known.
But the main challenge to finding the best ED drug for you may turn out to be health insurance rules—not biochemistry. It’s a common practice among insurers to limit the number of pills you can obtain per month. After you hit your limit, the out-of-pocket cost for a single pill can be very high. “The main obstacle in my practice is the cost,” Dr. Liou says. You’ll need to work with your doctor to get the pill you need at a price you can afford.
What erectile dysfunction pills are available?
In addition to Viagra, other ED drugs available in the United States include avanafil (Stendra), tadalafil (Cialis) and vardenafil (Levitra). These all improve blood supply to the penis. In combination with sexual stimulation, the drugs can produce an erection sufficient to initiate and complete intercourse.
There is also a fast-dissolving form of Levitra, called Staxyn, that you put under your tongue.
Viagra
Cialis
Levitra
One ED drug, Cialis, is FDA-approved for use daily in a dose of 2.5 or 5 milligrams. This helps to produce erections on demand and may also help relieve urinary problems, like difficulty starting urination, that result from an enlarged prostate.
How well do ED pills work?
ED drugs produce an erection sufficient for intercourse in about 70% of men. But the results vary quite a bit from one individual to another. A man with nerves or arteries damaged by prostate surgery, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease will not respond as strongly to ED drugs. “There are some men in whom none of these drugs work,” Dr. Liou says.
How quickly do ED pills work?
How soon the drugs start working ranges from 15 to 60 minutes. Neither Viagra nor Levitra will work if you take them after a meal, which blocks their absorption. However, neither Cialis nor Stendra interact with food this way. The onset time determines how soon you can engage in intercourse. Stendra and daily-use Cialis are closest to being an “on demand” erectile drug; using the others requires more planning.
How to use ED pills properly
Dr. Liou says that some men come to him after getting a prescription from their primary care doctors, claiming that the drug doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s because they used it incorrectly. “The biggest misconception is that these drugs are an on/off switch for erections,” Dr. Liou says. But the drugs don’t work well without sexual stimulation. “During that time, you need to be with your partner and have foreplay,” Dr. Liou says. “Don’t take it, do the taxes or the dishes, and then meet at the bedroom thinking you’ll be ready to go. It’s not like that.”
How long do ED pills last?
The ED drugs break down at different rates in the body. The durations of action range from four hours to more than a day (for Cialis in the higher doses). Each dose should be sufficient to provide a full cycle of intercourse, from erection to climax.
“Will it last through another cycle? It’s not guaranteed,” Dr. Liou says. To have sex more than once a day, Cialis is your best bet.
What are the side effects of ED pills?
The most common side effects of ED drugs, in order of most to least common are headache, flushing, upset stomach, nasal congestion, vision problems, diarrhea, dizziness, and rash. A man who has an erection that lasts four hours or more needs to get to a hospital or risk permanent damage.
None of the ED drugs is safe to take with cardiac drugs called nitrates because it could cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure. Drugs that many men take for urinary symptoms, called alpha blockers, can also lower blood pressure, so take them at least four hours apart from ED drugs. Your doctor may start you on a smaller dose of the ED drug if you already take an alpha blocker or may recommend the alpha blocker tamsulosin (Flomax), which affects blood pressure less.
Heart health and erectile dysfunction
ED is often an early warning sign of underlying cardiovascular disease, such as clogged arteries (atherosclerosis). “It can predate a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease by at least a few years,” Dr. Liou says. We don’t have strong proof yet that starting to live a healthier lifestyle can reverse erectile problems, but it can’t hurt.
ED drugs: How soon they start working and how long they last
