For those who don't know I'm a young guy, 20 years old, and I had an AMS LGX installed by Dr. Karpman in October of last year. So I've had my implant for over six months now. I've been impressed and very pleased with the results. There is still pain when I have it inflated for a while, and some when I have sex, but it's much less than it used to be, and living without ED has just been such a burden lifted off my mind.
All the posts and topics about implant failures have just got me thinking/worrying about it again. This was one of my chief concerns prior to being implanted. Karpman said that these newer implants should last me a good 10-15 years and he seemed pretty confident about this statement. Eid gives the same number on his website.
Eid says that, like any mechanical devices, the more the implant is used the faster it will wear down. He says average use is considered to be 1 to 2 times per week. I followed Dr. Karpman's twice daily inflate protocol for the first 4 months. He only instructed me to do it for three months, but he said it wouldn't hurt to cycle for a while after. For the past two and a half months or so I have been very consistently inflating and deflating my implant leaving it inflated for 30 min to an hour.
Should I stop this? I don't have a girlfriend right now and what with the pandemic, probably won't be getting one anytime soon. There is no reason I need to inflate/deflate my implant daily. Should I cut back to only inflating once or twice a week? Or given that I've still only had it for ~7 months, should I keep regularly cycling for a while longer?
Eid also said this about AMS implant faliures:
The AMS silicone cylinders are more fragile than the Bioflex Coloplast cylinders and are the most likely cause of failure of this brand of implant. Failure occurs because of repeated bending of the deflated cylinders at the location of folds and not at the point where the cylinders are connected to the non-inflatable proximal portion.
During sex, I often have to bend my penis somewhat (it is curved downwards at 30 degrees) especially if I'm in missionary for example. This was initially very painful but is getting much more comfortable. Is bending the inflated penis at the base to "fit" into various positions a strong concern? I imagine most men have to do this to have sex in various positions, even those with completely straight penises.
Obviously, when my penis is deflated, the cylinders are bent downwards at the floor under my pants. There's nothing that can be done about this I guess, it's just upsetting that I'm essentially causing wear on my implant every day by simply standing and wearing clothes.
Any insight or recommendation on this topic would be appreciated. I really want to get the most out of this thing. If it failed in 10 years I would be satisfied with it's life, but it if it quits on me significantly before that I'm gonna be pretty upset.