Better understanding erection quality

[Never_Enough]

For me and Im sure for a lot of us the biggest hurdle when deciding whether or not to go bionic is whether or not your existing erections are better than the risk.

The go to line with Implants for a lot of guys seems to be that they are 'last resort' when you erections are impossible- but what happens if your erections are possible but not good enough to live a comfortable life?

In order to help me make an informed decision I would like to ask here what people would rank my erection quality as if I describe it as best as I can.

Cause of ED is in my sig.

With no pills I am unable or very unlikely to get an erection good enough to penetrate with partner but can get a decent erection alone.

With between 15 and 20 mg of Cialis or 75-100 mg of Sildenafil I can achieve an erection that I am able to penetrate with about 80-90% of the time.

Due to the nerve and muscle pain this fluctuates between about 65 and 90% hard, but rarely feels 'fully rigid' even then. It sometimes goes soft after a few minutes and I tend to only last between 2 and 5 minutes. Changing positions is not possible even with high levels of pills, as soon as stimulation stops it starts to drop- I literally cannot flex it to keep it up.

There are occasions laying beside my partner it will stay hard and rigid longer, but they are few and far between and it doesnt usually carry into actual sex. Handjobs and blowjobs are usually better possibly because theres more sensation.

This is with a partner who is fully understanding and puts zero pressure on me- if it wasnt like that I doubt I would be able to as my cause is a mix of physical and psychological.

Im not sure injections are going to be a thing going forward as I have a problem with needles and they are cumbersome- plus if you miss you're screwed because you wont have taken pills to cover it.

I procrastinate because I keep reading people who say 'only get an implant if erections are impossible'.

What would people here see my erection quakity as and how would they deal with it?

Were an implantees here in a similar situation?>

Thanks.

[GoodWood]

I can’t answer for you, but I can put myself in your shoes.

With pills, an erection that is sort-of good enough, but doesn’t really last and is not dependable is achieved.

You aren’t interested in shots…

If I were in your shoes, in that situation, I would get an implant with the best, high volume surgeon I could find.

The good news is that (in that situation) I have some erectile function and with a great surgeon am likely to maintain much of that function around/on top of the implant.

That IS my situation. My erections weren’t entirely gone. But with a HUGE shot of meds I had a so-so erection for about 20 minutes. Now with my implant I still get nocturnal erections and morning wood around the implant. But now I have an absolutely dependable, rock hard, rigid shaft whenever I want. It’s great. I have zero regrets. My sensation is exactly the same. Feels even better actually because my brain interprets a rigid shaft as “OMG I’m so turned on!”

So, that is what I did in my situation.

[1sfman]

Hi Never,

I can't imagine having ED at your age. For me, it started when I turned 60. Pills worked fine for many years, then started failing. I went with shots for several months, but, without going into all the details, they were unsatisfactory for me. They do work for some, and that's great. I could get it up, but after getting started, it started going down. And yes, both my wife and I adapted, and managed to get off, although not through PIV. I could never shake the thoughts in my brain when just getting started that I would quickly lose my erection. It's a mood killer and it compounds the problem.

But for me, it came down to quality of life between my wife and me. We had a very active sex life and then the rug was getting pulled out from under us, slowly but surely. We went through several years of fighting my ED problems which caused diminished attempts at sex. My wife finally confided in me that she thought that maybe she was the problem. I had to convince her that she was NOT the problem. It was a downward spiral.

So for me, and with a lot of wasted time behind me, I decided to go with implants. I go tomorrow for my 6 week post-op visit. I know the road forward will still be a bit trying, but in the coming weeks I have no doubt I will have almost daily improvement. I say that because of all the great posts by FT members and their experiences. I know that I will have an erection for as long as I want, and that sense of pending failure will be gone.

In the end, it's a very personal decision about a permanent change to your body. At your age, you should are looking at the best years of your life. At my age (almost 75), I still think like the best years of my life are ahead. So for me, it was an easy decision, just one I wished I had made a few years earlier. You will have to balance those quality of life (quality of sex life) issues and make a decision. I wish you all the best going forward.

[Old Guy]

The biggest thing that helped me decide were the side effects from the pills and injections. Besides becoming unreliable Viagra would cause me to have a migraine the next day. Quit using it for a year or so until finding Trimix. Injections were wonderful at first, good effects. Then as the dose increased to get the same effect that caused an achy penis the next day. Trimix became unreliable and I moved to Quadmix. Within a couple months using Quadmix I had to increase the dose and ended up with the same result of an achy penis. Got tired of the ache and quit it, no PIV sex for a couple years. Then I learned about implants in a strange way, through a newspaper ad during a Vegas vacation. Back home found a urologist, saved up the co-pay and got implanted the next year.
All during this time I would occasionally wake up with a morning erection. As soon as I tried anything my erection would deflate faster than a pin poked balloon. I actually woke up with a pretty solid erection the day before my surgery.
I still wish I would have discovered implants sooner, and had it done sooner. Like before taking that first Viagra.