Early 30s considering implant - MANY questions

[LetoMan]

Have you been tested for Venous Leakage? It is a quick, easy test to do and not very expensive.

My urologist had an interesting approach to this question. He said there really isn’t a point to testing for venous leak, because it doesn’t change the treatment plan. The test involves inducing an erection with an injection and b serving with Doppler the rate at which blood then escapes your corpora. My doc essentially said I had a very high probability of venous leak, based on my description of a lifetime ability to get an erection under certain circumstances, but extreme difficulty in maintaining it.

Venous leak is essentially a failure in preventing blood from leaving your cavernosa once it gets in. It hinders getting an erection in the first place, but also in keeping it. For those that have it, it can often manifest as something that looks psychological, because you are capable of getting erections, especially when relaxed, such as when masturbating by yourself. And as a result it is deeply intertwined with our history of blaming ED on psychological issues.

Let’s say a Doppler test confirms you have venous leak. So what? It doesn’t change the treatment plan, which is pills first line, injections second, and implant if neither work or produce a satisfactory sex life.

Let’s say it doesn’t confirm you have venous leak. Now what? It could be your insurance doesn’t cover the implant, claiming it’s psychological. Or the patient gets confused and blames their psychology. Or it could even be a false negative. Or whatever.

The point is: the treatment plan is for erectile dysfunction, not for venous leak. It doesn’t really matter *why* you have ED, what matters is how you solve it.

Venous leak can come about because of an injury. So a Doppler test may make sense if you are trying to rule out a sudden onset of ED for psychological reasons. But if your ED is chronic and not responding to pills, it’s not psychological.

My advice: if your urologist recommends a Doppler test, great. But I would focus more on the solution for your ED rather than the reason for it, because the reason doesn’t matter for your treatment.

[HikerMan]

Sorry about your trauma and subsequent problems.

I am not qualified to advise about implants but I don't think you mentioned whether you have tired a high quality VED that is designed for men with E.D. I have one and am able to achieve good erections that are sufficient for intercourse.

There will be a solution that works for you, this is for certain. Best of luck.

I haven't tried a VED and I haven't tried Trimix or anything, I guess I should try? They're just expensive and seem like stop-gap measures that will result in an implant down the road anyways?

Hey Brother.

I have posted this many times here and you may have already seen this, but the Doctor who handled my IPP procedure Dr.Jeffrey Low Doyle (HIGHLY recommended) did a tele-seminar specifically on VED's and I found it really informative and informational.
Apologies to the people who've already seen this post.


Its about an hour long and I really learned a lot.
I hope you do too.

Best wishes.

https://youtu.be/uIwKd_4xdZ4?si=MeLSR32uctg8HzOi

[Lawrence13]

Brother, I have been able to have sex from age 17 till now. That past 5 years was a decline but I sustained by using injections. Point is… the loss of spontaneity alone, was enough to get my to take the leap.

What you just described in your post….i can’t imagine a more compelling reason for someone in their early 30’s to do this. You deserve to experience a real sex life you can enjoy. You deserve it now.

I have no notes. I think you should do it and do it as soon as you find a surgeon you are comfortable with. I wouldn’t wait.

Once I decided, I moved quickly and I’m so glad I did.

I'm curious - do you know what caused your decline? When you finally opted for injections/implant, were you not able to get even a little bit hard? Or was it like, blood could still flow down there, but not enough, or it wouldn't maintain, etc.

Part of me is still stuck on this line of thinking that because I'm not 100% flaccid at all times, and I can masturbate myself to like maybe half-hard, that that isn't enough dysfunction to justify the surgery, basically.

I have my suspicions about what caused my initial decline but the truth is I can’t state it with certainty. I do know that injections immediately fixed the problem. I could get rock hard and that never changed in the 5 years. The issue became the injections them self’s caused me damage. Scar tissue, fibrosis which led to a hypoxic priapism like event of two. Injections worked right up till my surgery but the damage was already done. Waiting would very likely but me on track to losing real length from atrophy and fibrosis setting in.

[Lawrence13]

Brother, I have been able to have sex from age 17 till now. That past 5 years was a decline but I sustained by using injections. Point is… the loss of spontaneity alone, was enough to get my to take the leap.

What you just described in your post….i can’t imagine a more compelling reason for someone in their early 30’s to do this. You deserve to experience a real sex life you can enjoy. You deserve it now.

I have no notes. I think you should do it and do it as soon as you find a surgeon you are comfortable with. I wouldn’t wait.

Once I decided, I moved quickly and I’m so glad I did.

I'm curious - do you know what caused your decline? When you finally opted for injections/implant, were you not able to get even a little bit hard? Or was it like, blood could still flow down there, but not enough, or it wouldn't maintain, etc.

Part of me is still stuck on this line of thinking that because I'm not 100% flaccid at all times, and I can masturbate myself to like maybe half-hard, that that isn't enough dysfunction to justify the surgery, basically.

I have my suspicions about what caused my initial decline but the truth is I can’t state it with certainty. I do know that injections immediately fixed the problem. I could get rock hard and that never changed in the 5 years. The issue became the injections them self’s caused me damage. Scar tissue, fibrosis which led to a hypoxic priapism like event of two. Injections worked right up till my surgery but the damage was already done. Waiting would very likely but me on track to losing real length from atrophy and fibrosis setting in.

The bit about you feeling like you don’t qualify because you sometimes can manage a hand chub. I will be blunt… based on what’s you’ve posted you are essentially in capable of physically getting or sustaining erection sufficient for sex. That’s all the reason. You need. As I stated I could still get hard with injections right up until surgery.

[awf_1993]

Hey Brother.

I have posted this many times here and you may have already seen this, but the Doctor who handled my IPP procedure Dr.Jeffrey Low Doyle (HIGHLY recommended) did a tele-seminar specifically on VED's and I found it really informative and informational.
Apologies to the people who've already seen this post.


Its about an hour long and I really learned a lot.
I hope you do too.

Best wishes.

https://youtu.be/uIwKd_4xdZ4?si=MeLSR32uctg8HzOi

Thanks for this, I'll check it out when I get a chance. I live in Los Angeles, so it's nice to hear that the surgeon I was already looking into seems to know his stuff. I'm curious what the out of pocket expense was for you, and if insurance covered any of the procedure.

From reading everyone's helpful responses here, it seems like trying injections first is the next step. I am just petrified of it, haha. I've never inserted a needle into my own body in my entire life, let alone my fucking penis.

Is there any precedent for just skipping the injections or telling a doc you already tried and wasn't for you? Not to condone lying to a physician or anything, but... y'know. Curious to hear thoughts.

[LetoMan]

Is there any precedent for just skipping the injections or telling a doc you already tried and wasn't for you?

I skipped injections. I told my doc that I really did not like the idea of injecting myself, and that as a newly single guy I wanted the ability to be spontaneous. He did his diligence in explaining that many guys were satisfied with injections, that there were ways of being prepared with injections on dates, etc. But after discussing it, he accepted that I had done my research and was ready for an implant.

What I wanted from an implant was what I got, a thousand times over: the confidence to know that I was always ready to go. Injections require a certain amount of timing, and you can only do so many within a period of time. One of the things I hated with pills when dating was guessing when I might need one. You think a date is going well and you pop a pill while you are out, but then she wants to have more drinks or doesn’t want to go home with you, or you are trying to drag out the date to let pill take effect, etc. I hate it.

Not any more. Now I am on demand. And it changes my whole outlook.

Before if I was just anxious… will I get hard? Did I take it too early or late? Will I lose my erection?

Now I’m just confident… and that confidence comes through.

[atom511]

Hey all,

32 year old straight guy here. I've suffered from and struggled with ED since I was 20 years old, and I basically don't even know what it feels like for my dick to be fully hard/erect. Even when masturbating solo, I can get to, like, *maybe* 60% hardness? It's hard to even know. I can get some blood to flow down there, and it gets larger, but not hard. The absolute hardest I can possibly get myself is still bendy and soft, often takes 5-10 minutes of zen-like concentration to achieve, and soon as I stop masturbating, it'll go right back down.

Sex is extremely difficult for me, and the few times I find myself in the situation, it becomes a stressful chore and a mental puzzle to figure out how to get juuuuust hard enough to enter. I do not know what actually satisfying sex feels like, and it's been like this since the beginning of my sex life - I can't tell you how many excuses and lies I've had to improvise an excuse/explanation in the moment as a young guy utterly perplexed why I wasn't getting hard *any* of the times I was getting intimate with women.

I've been on pills since 2016 - mostly daily tadalafil, generic viagra when needed - with diminishing returns over time. At this point the pills give maybe like a 10% boost, if they have any effect at all. Doc says it's my nervous system in a permanent state of fight or flight, and as such, my body is unable to allocate the resources and bloodflow to getting and sustaining a hardon since I'm always in survival mode.

However, this is all I know, and after a lot of researching and soul searching, it seems like biting the bullet and just getting an implant is actually the more reasonable solution to my dilemma than trying another decade of trying to somehow fix it naturally.

It's obviously a difficult problem to talk about, and even at urologists, I haven't been able to demonstrate, like, how quote-unquote "hard" I'm able to get, the circumstances needed to even get that hard, etc. If anyone is willing to talk and hear me out, that would be incredible. I have photos and videos that show the maximum "hardness" my still-not-rigid penis can achieve (but not maintain), and I'm basically wondering if my dreadful quarter-hard "erections" are similar to what those of you had before you were implanted, or if I'm still getting "hard enough" to technically not qualify for an implant.

I just can't fathom the prospect of living the rest of my life the same way the past 12 years have gone and I dream about the one day I'll actually be able to just enjoy and fully immerse myself in sexual pleasure without any of those other thoughts and stresses that have dictated the course of my love life.

So I ask you all, members of this forum, for help determining if I'm actually the kind of person these implants are meant for, even though I'm on the younger side, or if I'm way overthinking all of this. I have so, so, so many questions that I would love community input on.

Thanks to all for reading and for all who respond! This forum is a lifesaver.

12 years?

Man, I REALLY feel for you guys that have had to deal with this ED issue that long(or longer)
I worked just fine going into my early 50's then that lovely Prostate cancer reared its ugly head and I had to have prostate removed.

This shut-down my erection abilities and it was devastating to say the least.
I only dealt with it for roughly 9 months and
I will state categorically it was the worst 9 months of my life.
The pills, injections ....you name it,... were all just hit and miss in terms of effectiveness
and reliability.
In fact, its the only time of my life where I really felt depression.

DEEP depression.
I literally can't imagine going thru that for a decade and staying sane.

You found the right place to come with your issues though.
To say FrankTalk is a goldmine is the understatement of all time.

Even at your age and the inevitable replacement(possibly 2-3 more) I would seriously
consider going the implant route fairly soon.

The psychological hole you're in isn't going to get any smaller
and the more time passes by the larger that hole is going to get.

I know
I was there.


Brother Bionic Dan is 100% correct
when he says a day without sex is a day lost.

At your age you should be busting bed springs and making ladies walk bow-legged
for a few days or more.

Life ain't no dress rehearsal.
This is it.

You and I may not see tomorrow..
Nobody knows.

Best wishes on your decision.

Not to go off on a tangent, but your comment reflects my experience 100%

I'm about 10 months post prostate cancer surgery, it has cut down my sex life by about 75% I'd say. It is genuanally depressing and makes me a less emotionally available partner to my husband. Getting an implant almost a year to the day from my surgery in June.