Deflated Glans and Firm Flaccid: Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

From what I’ve read in sex guides etc it is generally accepted that the head of the penis is more sensitive when flaccid than when erect.

I have the same experience.

That seems counter-intuitive. I don’t really know what else to say, that is certainly not my experience. If they were more sensetive when deflated then this issue would not be nearly as concerning.

I’d say it was more sensative for me to. It was really easy to come when I first injured it. Could go in about a minute!

Yes and it’s true for a lot of people. The guys in this thread tend to have a much less common problem. The trouble is some of the symptoms, such as easily deflated gland, are actually quite common and thus guys without a great deal wrong with them can read this thread become worried. I suspect that not only does your gland not inflate well, but also the CS doesn’t expand much in the final inch of your penis. Again, this is quite common and though not ideal, certianly isn’t something to worry about and not comparable with the those whose glands simply don’t inflate and have firm flaccid etc. Are you circumcised?

That was my experience also. Not a minute, but a lot less than before.

What I find to happen, is that since this injury, I’ve tended to masturbate a lot less and during sex, if I become aroused enough and the glans inflate, than I have to either pullout fairly quickly or I’ll climax. If it doesn’t inflate during sex then I can go for ages, untill it does. Oftentimes meaning I don’t get to cum because she gets tired before I can combo enough stimulation to inflate the glans.

I have had this happen quite a few times. It is an awful feeling. I have chalked it up to a swollen prostate in the past.. Kind of like a ‘blue balls’ effect. Of course I really have no idea and have never even taken an anatomy class. But anyway, just wanted to say that I have experienced this uncomfortable problem at least ten times but never any of your other symptoms.

Hmm yeah, I’ve experienced it a handful of times more. I think it’s not uncommon to have that happen occasionally and I do not think it is related to the main symptoms being discussed in this thread.

I’ve said previously that kegels seem to cause problems for my erection and ability for my glans to stay inflated. I’ve had a suspicion it was muscle or nerve related and I’ve come across this:

Pudendal Nerve Entrapment

Pudendal nerve entrapment (PNE) is an uncommon[1][2][3] source of chronic pain, in which the pudendal nerve (located in the pelvis) is entrapped or compressed.[4] Pain is worsened by sitting, and can include prickling, stabbing, burning, numbness, and the sense of a foreign object in the urethra, vagina, or rectum. In addition to pain, symptoms can include sexual dysfunction, impotence, anal and urinary incontinence.

The term pudendal neuralgia (PN) is used interchangeably with "pudendal nerve entrapment", but a 2009 review study found both that "prevalence of PN is unknown and it seems to be a rare event" and that "there is no evidence to support equating the presence of this syndrome with a diagnosis of pudendal nerve entrapment," meaning that it is possible to have all the symptoms of pudendal nerve entrapment (otherwise known as pudendal neuralgia) based on the criteria specified at Nantes in 2006, without having an entrapped pudendal nerve.[5]

Symptoms
The typical symptoms of pudendal nerve entrapment are seen, for example, in male competitive cyclists, who can rarely develop recurrent numbness of the penis and scrotum after prolonged cycling, or an altered sensation of ejaculation, with disturbance of micturition (urination) and reduced awareness of defecation.[6] Other symptoms are anal and urinary incontinence, and pain caused by sitting, relieved by standing.

Causes

PNE can be caused by pregnancy, scarring due to surgery and accidents. Anatomic abnormalities can result in PNE due to the pudendal nerve being fused to different parts of the anatomy, or trapped between the sacrotuberous and sacrospinalis ligaments. Heavy and prolonged bicycling, especially if an inappropriately shaped or incorrectly positioned bicycle seat is used, may eventually thicken the sacrotuberous and/or sacrospinous ligaments and trap the nerve between them, resulting in PNE.

Treatment

Optional treatments include behavioral modifications, physical therapy, analgesics, pudendal nerve block, and surgical nerve decompression.[5] A newer form of treatment is pulsed radiofrequency.[7]

Physical Therapy

There are stretches and exercises which have provided reduced levels of pain for some people. There are different sources of pain for people since there are so many ligament, muscles and nerves in the area. Sometimes women do pelvic floor exercises for compression after childbirth. However, there have been cases where the wrong stretches make the constant pain worse. Some people need to strengthen the muscles, others should stretch, while for some people it is purely neurological. There have been cases where doing stretches have helped bicyclists. A helpful stretch for some is bending over and touching your toes. Another stretch includes bringing your knee to your chest on the compressed side while laying on your back. One more possibly helpful stretch for bicyclists include sitting in the lotus position and moving your head to the ground supporting yourself with your hands and keeping your buttocks up. Stretches should not be held long (about 8 seconds) and be spreadout through the day. Acupuncture has helped decrease painlevels for some people, but is generally ineffective.[citation needed] Chiropractic adjustments to the lower back have also helped some patients with pudendal nerve issues.
Corticoids treatment

Alcock canal infiltration with corticosteroids is a minimally invasive technique which allows for pain relief and could be tried when physical therapy has failed and before surgery.

Surgical

Decompression surgery is done by a small number of surgeons in a limited number of countries. The validity of decompression surgery as a treatment and the existence of entrapment as a cause of pelvic pain are highly controversial.[8][9] While a few doctors will prescribe decompression surgery, most will not. Notably, in February 2003 the European Association of Urology in its Guidelines on Pelvic Pain said[10] that expert centers in Europe have found no cases of PNE and that surgical success is rare:

<Quote omitted>

Three types of surgery have been done to decompress the pudendal nerve: transperineal, transgluteal, and transichiorectal. A follow-up of patients of this surgery after 4 years found that 50% felt their pain had improved to various extents, although control patients were not followed up for comparison.[11]

I’d just like to point out that pain isn’t always present in cases of nerve entrapment. I had an entrapped nerve in my arm a while ago with symptoms of numbness, tingling and loss of motor control but there was never any pain.

I believe I am affected by this problem and think that PE may be making it worse. Granted I am a newbie and have limited PE experience but after reading this entire thread and all the threads linked with in it I have reached the following conclusions.

I am going to replace jelqing with pumping. Lots of people affected by this seem to sight jelqing as the cause for the problem. I think jelqing and pumping largely do similar things; they both force more blood into areas of the penis. The difference is jelqing focuses the pressure on a specific spot which changes with the movement whilst pumping applies and even expansion all around. At a certain point in the exercise jelqing applys a lot of pressure to the glans and I assume consequently to the blood trying to exit the glans (I’ve got no idea about the anatomy of penis). Since the problem is a deflated glans clearly there is some problem with the blood exiting when it shouldn’t and thus jelqing must be detrimental. The reason I don’t think a pump will have a similar affect is that whilst the penis is expanded the blood is not constantly trying to escape as there is an even expansion everywhere. I imagine it like this - Jelqing is repeatedly forcing blood into and out of the glans whilst pumping accommodates a large amount of blood once, the exit of the blood is only abused once in pumping for 10 minutes vs 200 times for jelqing. Another reason for me switching is Urologists’s prescribe pumps; they are medical professionals who work on exacts sciences who wouldn’t prescribe something dangerous.

I am also going to replace manual stretches with hanging. Lots of people affected by this have complained about numbness and sighted nerve damage from stretching as possible cause. Hanging (Bib) applies pressure far more evenly than manual stretches, so is far less likely to apply to much pressure to the wrong place (nerve bundles near the glans).

Tweaking I am very interested to find out your results.

I can, one part splits to the left and the other continues ahead.

More noticeable when I’ve had plenty of water.

Are any of you guys actually having firm flaccid / erections which die down really quickly without stimulation ? Or are you just having ‘deflated’ glans ?

Happy to be proven wrong but I think everyone with the deflated glans also reports the firm flaccid. The rate at which erections die down I believe to be proportional to the severity of the individual’s case. Mine dies down at what I believe to be a pathological rate, but certainly not 100% to 10% in 5 seconds, as I’ve seen others report.

Something I just noticed, which I think others have touched on… when I’m sitting down and have my legs closed, neither my erection nor glans inflation is lost, but as soon as I open them, they both start to go. I wonder if this is the same thing that’s happening for people who have described a rapid loss of erection when standing up, but which is much better while sitting. Perhaps try standing up but with the legs tightly together to see if any difference?