Has anyone here ever suffered from ED and overcame it?

I suffer from the condition “venous leakage” for those not familiar with it; Definition: An erection is produced when blood to the penis compress the veins in the corpora cavernosa so the blood cannot leave. If these veins do not close well enough, the blood leaves (leakage) and the erection is lost.

This is especially bad for me when I’m standing, erections only last for seconds before slumping back down. (after removing my hand after jerking) I’ve read cock rings help, but that would just make my dick dependent on them I think, which I feel would make things worse than they are. I feel that’s how I got to this problem in the first place clamping all kinds of pressure on to the base of my dick during play times when I was younger and up until now.

I’m trying to exercise my dick back to past glory, so I guess I’m looking for hope and some inspiration. I’m 21, and I pray this isn’t going to be a life long battle. I’ve been trying a jerk and stop method that gives me repeated erections while standing trying to prolong the stiffy as long as possible (just started this week). If anyone has ever beaten this condition..or if you have a technique/idea you think I should try, feel free to post. All comments are welcome :)

Dude, I don’t have any advice apart from maybe trying L arginine tablets. They helped my mate have better erections. Just don’t buy them from any companies from Australia at the moment.

I don’t think you’re describing a physical condition here. This leakage myth is based on the theory of valve like elements which control the in- and outflow of blood into and out of the caverns. This again was made up to support the position that jelqing has negative side effects (i.e. destroying the valves).

An erection is not about catching blood in the penis and then locking it there. An erection is kept by being aroused for the entire time of sexual activity. If you manage to get “it up” physically everything should be all right. But looking at it and thinking “now you have to stay up” is not really arousing but puts stress on you and distracts you from the arousal. You might have a leakage - in confidence in your dick.

As many other members here I frankly advise you to try some viagra and get over it.

And there is already a thread somewhere on this board which deals with your next question (“Will I be depending on viagra then?”) ;)

“Venous leakage” is a recognized medical condition and not a myth promulgated by anti-jelkers. (L Born, how do you come up with some of these ED ideas?) The standard test for it is Duplex Ultrasonography, basically a sonogram of your penis in the process of a partial erection. Both blood flow in and blood flow out are measured and usually if there is “leakage” the source of that can be pretty well pinpointed. This is an office procedure and painless.

Surgery is the usual recommendation when the leakage is severe but the track record for this kind of venous surgery is not terrifically high. About 50% success; some very experienced surgeons in this technique claim close to 80%. If you ever do consider surgery, find the most experienced surgeon you can. Also, don’t just assume you have venous leakage because your erections wilt.

If you’ve never have been tested, get checked out for diabetes. We should all do this routinely, anyway.

Most guys though who have some leakage just live with it, performing very well with cock rings which you should also try - and let go of your fear of becoming dependent on them. If cock rings work for you, why not use them? A lot of women, btw, find them a visual turn-on.

Viagra is often very effective in a lot of cases and that is also worth a try for you.

“Has anyone here ever suffered from ED and overcame it?”

A lot of guys with ED have posted here that the degree of their ED was lessened by a sensible program of PE and particularly by regular vacuum pumping. Since most of us with ED have some physiological basis for ours and most of that is usually caused by some vascular insufficiency, it makes sense that if one is able to develop a healthier penile vascular system, improvement is going to follow.

Your stop-start program may or may not be of any help for the ED you’re experiencing, but the “edging” involved in it will teach you a whole lot about control and how you can prolong intercourse before ejaculating.

Isn’t it only natural for the penis to loose its maintaining power when stimulation is removed? Is this really something to be concerned about? Just seems like if you can keep a 100% erection during sex, then everything is OK.

I was diagnosed with venous leakage about 12 years ago. I am a diabetic, although I was not diagnosed as such at that time.

The test for it was really interesting. They inject something similar to Caverject into your penis to give you an erection and to remove any of the psychological aspects of getting an erection. If you are physically capable of having an erection then this will give you one. You lie down on a table then they insert an IV needle into your penis and attach it to an IV bag of saline solution. They hang this bag a couple of feet higher than your penis to create a little pressure. Then they open the IV and after giving it a few minutes to stabilize the pressure, they measure how fast the saline is flowing from the IV bag to your penis. It seems to me they were also doing some ultrasound at the same time, but I can’t really remember much about that. I do remember that I was amazingly erect. That was the first time I had been that erect in a long time, and it was an amazing feeling.

Basically,if your veins are normal, only a very little saline flows from the bag into you. This doesn’t in any relate to the valves in the veins, as they are not involved in the erection mechanism. If your veins are leaky then saline will flow out to replenish the amount of fluid leaking past your veins. I think I have read somewhere that a penis without venous leakage would only require about 2 cc of fluid per minute . I don’t remember what my number was, but it was easy to see the saline flowing out.

I was diagnosed with venous leakage and decided to have the surgery.

The surgery that I had was known as “Dorsal Venous Ligation”. In a nutshell what they do is cut into the pubic fat pad right beside the penis. They go in, then rotate the penis a quarter turn and cut the deep dorsal vein. They close each end of the vein where they cut it (I’m not sure if they stitch it or cauterize it closed). Then they rotate the penis back, and stitch things up. By doing it that way they can get to more of the dorsal vein than they could if they just went directly into the shaft. This also avoids any scarring of the skin on the shaft as well.

The unique structure of the penis is what allows them to just tie off the vein without worry, since the penis is drained by more than one vein (and I’ve read somewhere that as far as blood circulation is concerned, the penis is like a giant vein). The idea behind this is that even if blood wanted to leak from the inner veins in the penis to the dorsal vein, it couldn’t leak because that portion of the vein is no longer connected to the venous return. I assume that the forward portion of the deep dorsal vein would eventually resorb, but I don’t know that for sure. Of course, you can still have venous leakage going on past the point where the vein was ligated.

The procedure helped me some but not nearly as much as I would have liked. The doctor had done a good job about not getting my hopes too high, so I wasn’t terribly disappointed. If I had it to do over again, I would have it done just to get the amount of benefit that I got.

Plasticman,

I realized that I told you about the diagnosis of venous leakage, but I didn’t really answer your questions about what you could do.

Here are some things to think about/ questions to answer.

1) Are you a diabetic or do you have a family history of diabetes? Have you ever had your blood sugar checked? Are you overweight? Do you have high blood pressure? How about any other unusual health conditions?

2) Do you ever get erections that you can sustain? It’s common with some forms of ED to be able to sustain an erection for only a few seconds to a few minutes.

3) Have you been diagnosed with venous leakage, or is this a self-diagnosis based on your observations of your condition?

4) Have you ever tried Viagra?

5) I have seen some posts (I think by avocet8 and others) that indicate that pumping can be useful for some forms of ED.

6) How long have you had this condition?

7) Are you involved in PE? If so, for how long and what types?

8) Don’t be afraid of becoming dependent on cock-rings.

9) Do you have erections during the night or on awakening?

10) Some ED is caused by insufficient arterial inflow. There are some things you can do to help improve that. I think I’ve read somewhere that kegels will help with that.

11) Do you have any psychological factors that could contribute to the ED?

12) I would recommend that you do lots of searching here at Thunder’s and you should find several other references on this topic

Nice posts, itsme.

I’m glad especially that you underscored the diabetes angle. Usually at 21 that is the farthest thing from our minds. A simple blood test can rule diabetes out, or confirm it. Normally diabetes is controllable. It’s when you have it and don’t know it that it does all its silent vascular and nerve damage.

First off, thanks to everyone who responded, this forum helps alot.

Itsme, yes this is a self diagnosis, and it was really confirmed for me when I read about the condition of a 53 year old male who had been dealing with VL He has been having this problem since his early 20’s and suffered from the same poor standing erection fate.

I pump regularly, but I’m going to switch from pumping for gains to just trying to help induce the best erections as possible. I have to get used to pumping standing up also. I’ve had a pump since 18, I own three. I’ve only gotten real serious about it 2 months ago.

The only time I get erections at nights and in the mornings is if I don’t play with my dick too much. Best ones I had were recently where I didn’t beat off for a week while I was pumping. I don’t get those amazing ones people talk about though where it’s rock solid but I think they were sufficient. I haven’t really had any this week.

Psychological factors: manic depressive, and it doesn’t take much for my confidence to take a turn for the worse. My first sexual experience was a horror..The general didn’t show up for battle :( but I tend to forget I pumped like a maniac before that date. My second attempt was bad also and the baggage from the first experience carried over so there was an anxiety there…plus the women I was dealing with were very impatient anyway and seem to take some kind of offense when MY plumbing is the thing bailing. That’s disappointing enough, don’t need their shit to add to it. One night stands suck in that regard for me.

No one in my family really has diabetes, but I will attest to not being very much physically active I’m about 5’7-5’8 and I weigh 170lbs last I checked, but i could be lower since I don’t eat no where as much as I use to from depression. I’ll go to the gym and get on the scale tomorrow, I think I weigh about 160-165lbs now. I was almost 185lbs at one point a few years ago.

When I look at my body it’s more of being out of shape (cardio/conditioning) than being overweight with the exception of a little extra mid section the rest of my body still looks like it does when I was playing runningback on the football team.

Avocet - I felt the slap although you were extremely polite. Thank you and Itsme to have add value to this thread and to have corrected my bullshit. Still I wanted to speak up once more to ask plasticman:

You’re writing you’re manic depressive. Are you taking any medication in this regard? I read may times that anti depressants will weaken your erections.

Plasticman,

Thanks for being so open about sharing your situation. I’ll try to give you more info as best I can in the areas where you provided more details. Before I do that however, let me say that I truly relate to your situation (or as Bill Clinton would say, “I can feel your pain”).

First I want to again strongly encourage you to be tested for diabetes. The reason is because if you are diabetic and don’t know it then there are lots of other parts of your body that are getting as screwed up as your penis, you just don’t know it yet.

There are two simple tests for diabetes. The first is to take your blood sugar first thing in the morning when you haven’t eaten for at least eight hours (and twelve would be even better). A doctor’s office can test it for you, or if you have a diabetic friend who has a glucometer then they can also help you test it. This should be viewed as a screening test. (These numbers I give are approximate ranges. There is some disagreement about the exact numbers, but if you use the ones that I give you then you won’t be far off.) If your fasting blood sugar is below 110 mg/dl then you are not diabetic. If your fasting blood sugar is between 110 mg/dl and 125 mg/dl then you have what is called reduced insulin sensitivity (also called pre-diabetic). If it is over 125 mg/dl then you are considered a diabetic.

If your blood sugar shows up over 110 mg/dl then there is a second test that you should have. It’s called glycosylated hemoglobin (or HGbA1c for short) and it measures sort of an average blood sugar level over the past two or three months. If you are diabetic there are lots of simple dietary and lifestyle things you can do to help control it, and if necessary, there’s also medicine that’s very effective for most people. Getting your diabetes under control won’t automatically resolve your venous leakage, but it will provide the best environment for the other things you do (e.g. pumping) to be successful.

One thing to keep in mind about your self-diagnosis is that it is very difficult to differentially diagnose insufficient inflow from venous leakage without the test that I mentioned. Regardless of the actual situation, you would do well to attempt to increase the inflow. Like I said before, I believe that kegels can help that some, but I don’t really know too much about that.

Was there ever a time in your life when you did get rock-hard erections? If so, how long ago? Also, you mentioned that you don’t really get many nocturnal erections. Do you perhaps get them, but they aren’t really very erect. In my case, I have them, but I only get about half hard during the night.

Have you been diagnosed as bipolar, or is that a self diagnosis as well? If it’s a self diagnosis do you know enough about bipolar disorder to be confident that’s what you have as opposed to unipolar depression? Are you on any medications for your bipolar disorder, or any other types of prescription medications or supplements? Do you have health insurance?

There are some tips that I could give you about your sexual encounters, but that’s probably better suited for another post. Let me just say that you need to work on your oral sex skills, and you need to minimize the situations where your partners might be unkind. I personally have nothing against a one-night stand, but you are correct that you are more likely to encounter a woman who might be impatient or unkind on a one-night stand.

You’ll probably have less anxiety and less disappointment if you change your expectations about your sexual encounters. I suggest that you not even concern yourself with trying to be very hard, but set a realistic goal such as being able to achieve some type of penetration. If you’ve already given your woman several orgasms prior to attempting penetration then she’ll probably be more laid back about everything. Also remember that some women are insecure and when you can’t get it up for them they feel rejected because they think it’s their fault, so they might be likely to lash out. If you have a longer-term girlfriend then she’ll be much more understanding about things. You might also consider an older woman as she will probably be much more patient about things.

How old were you when you had your first sexual encounter? Have you ever had a long-term girlfriend?

I think that there are several advantages that PE can bring to you when you have ED. The first is that when you add length you help boost your sexual self-confidence. The second is that if you can achieve something like 5” or 6” flaccid then you have a fairly impressive tool even without an erection. The third is that some techniques (such as pumping) can actually improve erectile function.

I believe that avocet8 has mentioned in previous posts that he also is involved in some ED forums as well. I want to encourage you to check them out also. He can also give you good advice on the best techniques for pumping to help overcome ED.

I will check it out but I seriously doubt I have diabetes. I’m not on any medication I was on Paxil once but I got off that because I felt like a neutered dog while on it. I was 19 when this occurred. My first sexual encounter was a few months ago and I have never had a longterm girlfriend due to shyness that I use to have and it was bad back in school. It took a long time to realize being shy is a waste of time, I learned alot of life lessons the hard way because of it.

Avocet8 I’d like to try any pumping tips you can offer on this matter :)

Plasticman;

You can find lots of pumping tips in the Pumpers’ Forum here.

I agree with your thinking - to pump for vascular development, not necessarily for size. If you “accidently” get size increase, you’ll just have to adjust your life to that. :-)

The best advice as to pumping for ED benefit that I can give you is to try to look at your pumping routine as if it were a duplication of a normal, healthy nocturnal erection patttern.

The average guy without ED has 4 - 5 strong nocturnal erections, each lasting about a half hour. These occur during REM sleep. They have no function except to re-oxygenate penile tissue and to flush out fibrous “gunk” which accumulates in veins and arteries in the penis during times when we are flaccid - which is most of every twenty-four hour day. Don’t underestimate the importance of these events. They are one of your best defenses against ED.

If you now “pump regularly,” you’re not a beginner so you can set yourself a fairly advanced time schedule. You should be going for series of low-vacuum repetitions. Pump for 5 or 6 minutes at only 3 - 5 HG, then release the pressure, exit the tube and massage for a few minutes, using a lube. Go back in the tube and repeat for 5 - 6 minutes, then massage again. Try to do this for 4 or 5 sets. By doing so, you will be duplicating what should be happening naturally every night of life for you as you sleep. A routine like this should take you less than 45 min a day. Try to establish a weekly schedule of at least 5 days on (6 is better) but with one day of no pumping at all. Plan on a long-term therapy here - months.

I’ll wager that you will notice over time several things happening. You will begin to develop prominent veins and arteries over the surface of the shaft of your cock where none were evident before. No matter what your current perception of what a healthy cock should look like is, trust me that veinier is healthier. Gradually your erections when you masturbate should become firmer and last longer with less constant stimulation. And you will begin to wake up in the morning with good wood.

Tips for imporoving your nocturnal erection pattern: Take L-arginine and an herbal called “Maca” daily. I buy plain, unadulterated L-a at the GNC chain of stores, ninety 500 mg tabs cost about US $11. I buy Maca at Longs Drug Stores, the Nature’s Resource label, ninety 500 mg tabs costs about $7. In your particular case, BEWARE: GNC also sells Maca but it is laced with yohimbe, sometimes called yohimbine. This is a drug you in particular should never take; it causes anciety, sleeplessness, and nervous tension. Plain Maca though is harmless. The worst side effect I’ve heard of from a few users of Maca is some stomach upset. L-a often causes some initial farting but this stops in a couple of days, or a week.

Both L-a and Maca are precursors to nitric oxide, an essential element in achieving erections. Both L-a and Maca take about a week to kick in. I suggest you try at first a few days of 500 mg of each, taken on an empty stomach, 3 x day, then increase to 1 gram of each, 3 X day. Take the last doses before you go to bed.

Get fit. Start a program of cardiovascular exercise - join a gym if you have to. Regular exercise is a super way to cut down on depression AND, it is not enough to develop a healthy penile vascular system, you want your whole body’s vascular system to be in great shape. Erections will follow.

That for starters.

LBorn;

Sorry for the smack but you did deserve a knuckle rap. ED is a terrible thing to have to deal with and the less mythology and the more fact we have, the better for us all.

Your suggestion to Plasticman of starting to use Viagra is excellent. I personally am opposed to recommending V to guys who get good erections without it. They get so impressed with themselves when they use it recreationally that they begin to think it’s essential to their sexual well-being. In fact for them it isn’t.

But in Plasticman’s case a regular regimine of 25 mg of V, even daily, will probably add to good penile vascular flow and surely boost his confidence level for when he tries sex with another human again. It’ll strengthen his nocturnal erection pattern and likely, too, give him some good extra stretch when he does his pumping routine.