Embolization has been a waste of time for me

[LiquidSkin123]

Male, age 32 here, Confirmed Venous Leakage with Penile Doppler
EDL - 11.7 and 13.2 on both sides, Never been able to achieve penetration and think Issue is Congenital.

On Doctor's advice undwerwent embolization and was not advised Sexual Activity for a week. Could feel Morning Wood for the first 3-4 Days but then completely lost everything and went back to square one. Does it mean that I have to eventually go to Implants? Can someone please help me?

[edjohn]

First of all, venous leak is literally just medical jargon for "your dick doesn't work." It is not a specific disease or mechanism of injury or anything. It just means you show the symptoms of an erection not filling up (leaking).

Second, straight from the best surgeons, ligation/embolization is a scam. Maybe it is based on a functional theory, but good surgeons don't even offer it because it either does no good or it doesn't last (our bodies just regrow new veins whenever they want to).

You specifically may or may not need an implant... we all do eventually, but without knowing your health or what you've tried so far we can't tell you anything more.

[GoodWood]

Welcome to FrankTalk. I hope you find the information and support here that you need. I’ve found it immensely helpful over the years.

The accepted, evidence-based treatments for ED generally follow a stepwise pathway: pills → injections → implant. That sequence is usually the same regardless of the underlying cause—whether it’s venous leak (blood flows into the penis but doesn’t stay trapped there), arterial insufficiency (not enough blood flow into the penis), or neurogenic causes (damage to the nerves involved in erections, as can happen after some prostatectomies).

Because of that, the exact cause is often somewhat academic from a treatment standpoint. In most cases, the treatment progression is still the same: pills first, then injections, and finally an implant if needed.

Procedures like venous ligation generally have not proven very effective. Many men on this forum have tried it with little or only short-lived benefit. Treatments such as shockwave therapy and PRP also don’t appear to have strong evidence of consistent effectiveness, despite being widely marketed.

Your next step is to work through the standard treatment pathway systematically. That means trying the available oral medications—daily Cialis (tadalafil), on-demand Cialis, Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil), and Stendra (avanafil). If pills aren’t effective, the next step is injections, such as monomix, bimix, or trimix. It’s also worth trying these treatments with a good-quality cock ring, which can improve results for some men.

If none of those options provide reliable erections, then an implant becomes the next—and final—step.

Depending on where you live, some of these treatments may not be available, but the key is to try everything that is available in a systematic way.

The good news is that somewhere along that pathway, most men do find a solution that gives them reliable erections.

Let us know what you’ve already tried and what your results were.