Erectile dysfunction is a common condition. It tends to occur in the majority of men once they reach a more advanced age. This is likely due to how it is developed, but we’ll touch on that more, later.
Unfortunately, erectile dysfunction tends to become a joke to many people; a reason to ridicule or otherwise poke fun at the idea that some men cannot achieve an erection. This often prevents men from seeking help with erectile dysfunction, and it leads to a lot of misunderstandings of what erectile dysfunction really is, how it happens, and what it really does to the men who suffer from it.
If you’re suffering from erectile dysfunction, and you have fallen victim to this social issue that has prevented you from seeking help or fully understanding your predicament. Keep reading and learn how does erectile dysfunction affect a man. There is hope, and we’re going to dispel the mystery surrounding erectile dysfunction while also pointing you in the right direction to correct it and reclaim your sex life.
Before you can dive into how does erectile dysfunction affect a man, you have to understand what it really is. Most people have a surface-level understanding of it as a condition where the penis simply fails to function properly, but it's a bit more complicated than that, and simplifying it does more harm than good.
First, erectile dysfunction isn't its own condition. In fact, it's a side effect of a few other things.
One of the most common myths regarding this is that it's just a mental block. While your mental state can cause some lighter forms of erectile dysfunction via the lack of an ability to become aroused, more noticeable, longer-term, fights with erectile dysfunction tend to stem from more tangible conditions.
Primarily, the cause of erectile dysfunction has to do with scar tissue within the spongy chambers of the penis. Normally, those chambers would fill with blood; causing the stiffness that makes a penis capable of sexual performance. As scar tissue builds up over time, those chambers become partially blocked, and blood cannot enter in substantial enough amounts to create an erection.
Then, you might have to consider your cardiovascular health. Again, an erection is formed by blood flowing into chambers within the shaft of the penis. If there isn’t proper blood flow anywhere in your body, you’re likely to have issues getting and maintaining an erection. Those with heart problems, obesity issues, and various other issues that damage the cardiovascular system can have issues with erectile dysfunction to varying degrees.
Finally, there are more specific causes such as certain medications, traumas, and more that can damage your ability to get an erection. In some cases, simply getting off of a medication can resolve the issue, but the more serious the issue, the less likely it is that you can resolve the problem so easily and more likely that you will need an ED treatment in Leesburg.
Erectile dysfunction isn’t the type of condition that produces effects you’ll physically notice. Besides your penis not getting erect, there is little in the way of physical consequence. You won’t suffer heart attacks because of it, you won’t have a stroke, and you won’t walk around in excruciating pain as you would from other types of conditions.
Instead, the effects of erectile dysfunction are mostly hidden behind the scenes and manifest themselves in ways you wouldn’t expect from such a common and non-dangerous condition.
There’s a big reason for this. Men tend to pride themselves on their ability to please a partner, and their penis is usually a very important part of that. Now, imagine you’re a man who has had a strong, fulfilling sex life for thirty years. Suddenly, you notice that you are losing your erection halfway through sex, or it takes you a lot longer to even develop an erection in the first place. Several incidences occur where you're forced to stop sexual activity.
For anyone, that’s an embarrassing situation that sends the mind into a downward spiral worrying about their partner’s opinion, what’s “wrong” with them, if they did something wrong, and various other things. It also leaves them sexually unsatisfied, as well as doing the same to their partner.
In turn, emotional responses tend to start shooting off like rapid fire.
Many men who experience this will begin to feel irritated due to sexual frustration, and the major blow to their self-esteem can spark the onset of depression and anxiety.
These tend to spill over into other aspects of a man’s life, and while they can appear to be entirely separate issues, they’re just side effects of erectile dysfunction. Leading to confusion and attempts to try ineffective treatment methods or to take on destructive behaviors.
Here’s a comprehensive list of some of the effects men will notice in their lives once erectile dysfunction has become an issue.
Sex is a huge part of any romantic relationship. It’s both pleasurable and meaningful as it’s a method of showing deep intimacy. When erectile dysfunction begins to set in, and that necessary sexual interaction begins to fade, marital issues can ensue.
When both members of the relationship continuously fail to experience sexual pleasure and physical intimacy with one another, they can become passive-aggressive, aggressive, disagreeable, resentful, and various other negative things.
Of course, this goes for relationships that don’t include marriage, too. If the relationship relies on sexual intimacy, these issues can begin to develop and spill into the more mundane parts of the relationship.
If you are constantly struggling to relieve sexual tension, and have mental and emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, and aggravation building up, your ability to focus on meaningful tasks such as your job will become more difficult. Where you might have enjoyed your job in the past and excelled at it, you might suddenly find your work relationships strained due to sudden outbursts, your overall performance dropping due to a lack of focus, and the effects of your overall mood just not being what it once was.
The worst part about this is how important a job is to living a high-quality life. If your work performance begins dropping, you can experience more serious effects, and things can quickly spiral out of control. Imagine losing your job today, with no warning, because you took your aggression out on your boss when reprimanded for not meeting your work goals. The probably would likely get much worse, wouldn’t it?
It’s difficult to be social and outgoing when you’re struggling with your inner demons. That’s exactly what anxiety and depression tend to be, and over time, you can expect them to start impacting your general relationships.
You might find yourself turning down invitations to go out on the town with your guy friends, hiding away when your group of coworkers wants to have a bit of water-cooler conversation, and other, seemingly little, things that add up and create major disconnects between you and your friends over time.
Considering having a strong support system via friends, family, and romantic engagements is key to having a high-quality life, this can be much bigger than just missing a night playing darts or not hearing about how Jimmy in accounting ate John’s lunch. It can add to a very serious downward spiral and remove your most likely source of support; preventing you from pulling yourself out of it and getting back on track with your emotions and daily performance.
Having sex is hard enough when you have erectile dysfunction. Many men can attempt to get an erection for anywhere from half an hour to an hour straight, and even then, they might not achieve it. So, imagine that you finally achieve one after weeks of not having sexual intercourse with your partner, and then you ejaculate prematurely just a few minutes into the act. That could compound the problem even more than it currently is, and it’s certainly not a pleasant experience.
If you ever wondered whether erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation are related, they are. While it can be difficult, most erectile dysfunction sufferers do occasionally get erections. However, due to their history of not being able to perform by the point that happens, they tend to have a lot of anxiety surrounding sex. This leads to premature ejaculation during the few instances of them being able to initiate sexual intercourse. If you’re suffering from erectile dysfunction and have noticed you’ve suddenly started ejaculating much sooner than before, it could be due to the anxiety your erectile dysfunction has caused.
Any time you’re speaking about an issue within the mind, various vices are bound to come into the equation. While erectile dysfunction itself isn’t a mental illness, the depression and anxiety it creates are.
If you allow erectile dysfunction to persist without treatment, the mental ramifications of that decision will build; slowly getting worse and worse. Naturally, you might seek out a way to comfort those mental issues that aren't exactly productive.
Alcohol abuse, smoking, and other vices can be used to distract you from the emotions you’re feeling, but like the other effects we’ve spoken about, those generally just lead you into deeper, darker paths that you probably wouldn’t follow otherwise.
Luckily, there are plenty of treatments for erectile dysfunction, and while we personally recommend the most effective and meaningful solution, we will outline all the options at your disposal for transparency’s sake.
These are not recommended. They provide short-term results, aren't reliable, and unfortunately, can be quite dangerous. There are links to increased heart attack risks and various other issues to the use of these erection-forcing pills. That's due to them forcing blood into the penis in an attempt to resolve the issue. This does not help in the long run, and the risk isn't worth the short-term benefits.
Injections are one of the more invasive forms of ED treatment. They deliver a medical solution to the shaft of the penis via a hypodermic needle. As you can probably imagine, that is in no way an appealing way to treat any sort of issue found within the penis, and in some rare circumstances, they can be dangerous due to the room for human error in their application. The good news is that they tend to last a bit longer than pills and other treatments, but you still need to regularly update your injections to continue enjoying their effects.
Pumps are nearly pointless. You insert your penis into them right before sex and using a hand-held inflation tool, you "pump" your penis into an erection. This can increase the scar tissue that causes erectile dysfunction in the first place, and the results are lackluster at best. Not to mention, it can be embarrassing to stop an intimate moment and then pull out an obnoxious contraption to treat your penis like a fleshy balloon.
Implants are our least recommended method of treating erectile dysfunction. This is essentially when a specialist opens the penis and inserts a synthetic rod. If that sounds uncomfortable, that’s because it is. It can also result in permanent damage to your penis, and it doesn’t really treat erectile dysfunction. It just gives you the illusion of a partial erection.
If the previous methods for treating erectile dysfunction seemed ineffective and potentially dangerous, that’s because they are, and we highly recommend staying away from them.
Luckily, there’s another option.
Acoustic Wave Therapy utilizes acoustic sound waves delivered via a special tool operated by a specialist to "massage" the scar tissue that most commonly causes erectile dysfunction away. The subtle sound waves break up the scar tissue and allow you to get natural erections as you did before accumulating the scar tissue.
This won’t resolve some issues such as those that have to deal with cardiovascular health or medications, but for most men, it is a substantial, natural, non-invasive option proven to provide results.
If you would like a free consultation to see if acoustic wave therapy is a suitable treatment for your erectile dysfunction, contact Triumph Health Centers, today.