Shockwave DIY

I can’t afford shockwave treatements for ED so I bought my own machine. I document how it works on my blog:

Shockwavefored.blogspot.com

But, I’ll post some updates to this thread too.

Shockwave therapy has been done in Europe for a few years, but isn’t FDA approved in the US yet. In spite of that fact, many clinics offer it for around $4000 for about 6 treatments. Gainswave is a therapy that has been marketed to doctors and is the one that seems to be the most common. Another is ED1000. They all use different machines, but they all essentially do the same thing. It’s important to know that shockwaves have nothing to do with electrical shocks. This is a good explanation of what they really are:

Shock wave therapy - Shockwave Theory

Shockwave therapy is used for breaking up kidney stones, bone spurs, muscle pains, and much more. Exactly how they help the body heal is not understood. As far as ED is concerned the therapy helps people who have ED caused by poor blood flow, so not everyone is a good candidate for it.

Shockwave machines are FDA class II machines, which means they fall into the same category as electric wheelchairs, condoms, and pregnancy tests. In other words, the chances of doing harm are small and they really don’t need special medical training to operate.

Does it really help ED? There are some studies that say it does:

Safety and efficacy of low intensity shockwave (LISW) treatment in patients with erectile dysfunction - PMC
Https://www.europeanurology.com/article/S0302-2838(16)30259-7/pdf
http://www.onta riomenshealth.c … 20article_0.pdf

Shockwave machines range from about $1000 on the low end to $7000 and more. Most are made in China, which is always a worry since so much poorly made junk comes from there. I found this one on Alibaba, which is model SW6, made by Lingmei. With shipping and all it cost about $1200. There are other machines with the same guts, but in a different box that go for about $1700. I’m not planning on using it on a daily basis like it would get used in a clinic, so I’m not too worried about it being a lower end model. If it doesn’t work I won’t be out that much. Besides therapy in a clinic would be $4000. I’m sure the doctors wouldn’t like you to know that machines are available that can do what they charge you megabucks to do. It should arrive in a few days.

TREATMENT PROTOCOL

The big question is what parameters to use for the treatment. I got my settings from these sources:

Https://www.europeanurology.com/article/S0302-2838(16)30259-7/pdf
Shock wave therapy - Shockwave Theory

So I chose:
Energy density .09 mJ/mm2
15mm convex head
3000 pulses each treatment (1000 on left shaft, 1000 on right and 500 on left crus and 500 on right crus)
2 treatments a week

Here’s a video showing a Dr. Treating a patient. The video not only shows you what the mysterious crus (plural is crura) is, it’s pretty clear you don’t need a medical degree to perform the procedure.

One issue I’ve grappled with is converting the force of the device in mJ to the energy density in mJ/mm2 which varies depending on the size of the head used. The machine gives you mJ, but not mJ/mm2 for the different heads. The second source I cite above does give this information for a 15mm head: 120 MmJ is .12 mJ/mm2, and 180 Mj is .38 mJ/mm2. I’ve tried to figure out the math, but the relationship must not be linear and me and math have never been friends. However, by eyeballing it, 90mJ on the 15mm head ought to be about .09 mJ/mm2 which is the setting most studies used.

In addition to shockwave, once a day I use my pump to create an erection, deflate, then create another one. I do this 5 times. There are studies that this helps patients after prostate removal, but I haven’t seen anything about how it may help ED patients who haven’t undergone surgery. It doesn’t hurt to try, right? The only problem with doing both therapies is that you can’t tell what is causing any results. I’m not so worried about doing a medical journal type study on myself, but on fixing my ED by whatever means.

You didn’t answer the big question. How long have you been using your device and are you seeing positive results?

SIGNS THAT IT’S WORKING
Six days and 3 treatments. Normally during oral sex and without using any helpers I only get about a #1 erection on the Erection Hardness Score. Last night, for the first few minutes it was at about #3 erection for a few minutes. My wife noticed it as well. I really didn’t expect to see anything for a few weeks. The next morning I had some noticable wood.

10 days and 5 treatments. My goal is restoring erections, however, I’ve noticed that my cock is longer when flaccid. I didn’t measure it before, but my guess is it’s about an inch (2.5 cm) longer. Does that mean it’s getting better blood flow? I hope so.

It’s been about 7 treatments so far. This is usually all most commercial treatments do, but the studies show the results take a month or two to kick in. Generally I take 100mg Viagra and a small dose of trimix. This usually this works OK, but the effect starts to fade toward the end and sometimes I end up having to put a ring on to finish. The difference today was that I stayed hard throughout, and even maintained an erection for a while after.

I first just took Viagra to see what would happen. Now, Viagra by itself hasn’t worked for me for years. However, I was actually able to penetrate for a while with Viagra alone. That was an improvement, but it wasn’t hard enough to sustain so I had to give myself a trimix injection. The nice thing was that I wasn’t worrying about my erection, but was able to focus on my wife instead. It feels like progress to me.

I mentioned that my cock is now longer when not erect. I use a pump once a day to inflate and deflate my cock about 5 times. When I started I had to pump a lot more before it got completely erect. Now it gets there much quicker. I can only imagine that this is due to better blood flow. Now my goal isn’t increasing size, but when I started, the vacuum device would get me to about 5.5 inches (14cm), and now I max out at 6 (15cm). My guess is that I’m just getting it to its natural length. I doubt it is actual length increase that will show up outside the vacuum pump.

Good thread and blog! Please keep posting, I’m considering trying this also.

(More details on shockwavefored.blogspot.com)

AFTER 8 TREATMENTS
I’ve done treatments every other day for two weeks. Yesterday (Aug. 28) was my eighth. The good news is that I’ve had morning wood three days in a row. The bad news is that last night I took my usual dosage of trimix and had the usual problem keeping it up long enough. It’s important to remember that in the medical studies that compared treatment and non-treatment groups, there was no difference until a month or two had past. In other words, it takes a while for the new vessels to grow. I’ve only been at it for two weeks. Gainswave does a few treatments, then waits a few weeks and then administers a few more, so they realize that it takes time as well. I also noticed that in many of the medical studies they did not accept patients who had experienced ED for a long period of time. In my case it has been about 17 years which is another reason I can’t compare myself directly to those studies.

AFTER A STRONGER TREATMENT
In the medical studies some people use stronger shockwaves, and apply more of them that I have been. Others who have had the treatment report that they come away with a cock that feels like it’s been through something. Since I haven’t felt that way I decided to up the strength from .09mJ/mm2 to .12 in the 9th treatment. (That’s 120mJ on the machine setting.) I also doubled the number of pulses to 2000 on each side and 1000 on each crus.

I applied the treatment in the morning and afterward really didn’t notice any difference, so in the evening I tried an experiment. Two days before I had used a 7ml dose of trimix which didn’t last very long. That had been my typical experience with that dosage for the last few months; it just wasn’t lasting as long as it used to, and as long as I needed it to. So, at night I gave myself 2.5ml to see what would happen. Wow, that smaller dosage gave me a good boner (#3 to occasional #4 on the EHS) for about 90 minutes.

The question I have is whether this difference is due to my stronger treatment or if it was coincidence. The larger dosage hadn’t worked two days earlier, but I had given it to myself after using the ring. Would that change anything? I really don’t know. Could I have botched the injections the last few times. What I mean is that sometimes I’ve not put all of the medicine into the corpus cavernosa where it belongs. I kind of find it hard to imagine that so many of my injections were poorly placed, and that the 2.5ml one just happened to hit the right spot. Time will tell.

RESULTS OF SHOCKWAVE THERAPY AFTER 15 TREATMENTS

I’ve been doing treatments on myself every two days. I was still doing the aggressive treatment at .38mJ/mm2, with a total of 6000 pulses at treatment 13. This may have been overkill so the last 2 treatments have been at .09, but still 6000 pulses. What I have noticed lately is morning wood quite often. .

The most incredible thing that happened was that I was watching my wife undress and I got a spontaneous erection (#1 on a scale of 1-4) for about 2 minutes. So it was no pants splitting boner that lasted long enough to satisfy a dozen women, but it happened, and it has been years since I got a boner out of the blue.

I gave myself a 1.5ml shot of trimix before sex yesterday and it kept me hard throughout. Before these shockwave treatments, 7ml of trimix wouldn’t last long enough to get the job done under the sheets. What’s more, the next day I got another soft erection while cuddling which became about a #3 for a little while during oral sex.

I discuss the results, and many issues about using shockwave for ED at shockwavefored.blogspot.com

Great stuff keep it coming. Any noticeable differences in quality of your unit/erections? I’m interested in this more as a PE supplement / method of clearing scar tissue / method of straightening upward curve.

I HAD SEX WITHOUT AN ERECTION AID. FIRST TIME IN 16 YEARS

A little under three months and about 38 shockwave treatments later it finally happened. I was able to have sex without any kind of erection aid. It had been about 16 years since that happened. Prior to that time my love life was anything but spontaneous. While I should have been concentrating on enjoying the pleasure and connection with my wife, I was constantly wondering if whatever I had done to get an erection would work long enough to get the job done. Was I going to get there before my cock goes numb because of the ring I’d put on? Was the trimix injection well placed? Was I starting to get soft? If so, I’d have to jump of and say “Sorry Honey, just wait there a second, keep that state of arousal, don’t give up on me, I’ve just got to run and get the penis pump, set it up, and get a ring on so I can get back to you. Hopefully you haven’t got out of the mood, or fallen asleep before I can get it up again.”

All this worry and my internal dialog with myself was making it hard for me to relax and let it happen. (Am I going to get there before it wears off? What if we switch positions? I hope she’s not getting frustrated; we’ve been at it a while.) That led to many a session in which I just couldn’t get there. I know guys with premature ejaculation would be envious. Sometimes it meant that my wife had multiple orgasms, which is wonderful, but she’s told me that a huge part of her pleasure is being the source of mine, and sometimes I’d hump till I’d drop from exhaustion.

Viagra had stopped working a long time ago, spontaneous erections were non-existent, and morning wood was very occasional. Trimix was my last hope, but even with that, the doctor had been giving me stronger and stronger mixtures. I was up to .7cc injections and even those were wearing off before I was able to orgasm. Another thing is that each large injection is about $10 a pop, whether or not I pop or not. My wife has always been understanding and never said anything negative about me or my performance, but it sure made every lovemaking session more like an experiment in a lab to see what will work and what won’t. She did comment on that.

As far as how bad my ED is, the best way to say it is that without some kind of help, it’s not going to happen. That puts me on the severe end of the scale, 6/30 on the IIEF scale. The cause is a venous leak. I’ve got varicose veins that allow blood to flow back the wrong way, in this case out of my penis, rather than trapping it in where it is needed.

Now to the big question. What has changed compared to three months ago? Well I’ve tried Viagra a few times and it didn’t work well enough for penetration, so that is a negative. The small positive gains have been more morning wood, and a few weak, but spontaneous erections. My penis has noticeably changed a bit also. I’m not talking about improvements in size, which were not a goal to begin with. However, there is some good evidence that the blood flow is improved. First of all, when limp is it longer than it used to be when limp. Second, when I create an erection in the vacuum pump, it used to take a lot more time and pumping to get it to full mast. It hardly takes much to draw in blood, which must mean there are more veins, or at least their capacity has been expanded. I also think I see some surface veins that didn’t used to be there, but I can’t be sure since I don’t have before pictures.

The best thing was that last night my wife crawled into bed, found I had a night erection and woke me up to take advantage of it. It was only a #3 hardness on the scale of 0-4, but it was sufficient. I was actually surprised it lasted long enough to get ‘er done. I figured as some point I’d have to get it up by artificial means to continue, but that didn’t happen. A few days before I’d got a #3 stiffy from a bit of cuddling.

One other significant improvement is the last month or so is that I only need .2 CC injections of trimix instead of 7+. That small amount gets me plenty hard for plenty long. A10cc bottle is now good for 50 sessions rather than 14. Shockwave has improved the blood flow considerably. During lovemaking I’m focused on that not on whether my erection will last. It usually stays plump quite a while after it’s needed.

Just because the plumbing worked once without medication doesn’t mean I’m cured. I believe that I will still need trimix. The question I now grapple with is whether there any possibility that continued treatments may actually cure my venous leak. Will I get to the point that I no longer need trimix for good? The medical literature is silent on the matter, since I’ve never seen a study that is carried out for such a long period of time with so many treatments. The studies do show that men need booster treatments after a while to continue to get the benefits that shockwave therapy initially gave them. At this point, I’ve suffered no ill effects, irritation, or anything else that would signal that I may be taking it too far, so I will continue to treat. I suppose that I’m setting myself up as a test case for whether a man with severe ED caused by a venous leak can eventually get erections without some outside support.

Shockwavefored.blogspot.com

Thanks. Very good information. Hope that continued treatments will eventually cure that leak. Wish you the very best.

Great progression you are having. Looking forward how it will turn out to be in longer period of time. I am considering to purchase SW machine as well and run my own experiments during decon breaks of the PE. Wish you would be able to wash away your long time burden completely.

RESULTS AFTER 5 MONTHS
For the last 3 weeks I’ve taken a break from doing treatments. I have continued to induce erections via a penis pump for about 5-10 minutes twice a day as part of the therapy. Once again I’m stressing that I’m out to document all of my results or lack thereof. I’ve got nothing to sell.

When I do the pump therapy I inflate and deflate my penis a few times. When it’s fully inflated it reaches 6 inches, and when I release the pressure it immediately deflates to about 5 inches. Now, before starting therapy it would deflate to about 4 inches. To me that seems to indicate that my venous leak is less leaky since more blood stays in.

I’ve had mixed results with trimix this month. Before therapy even 7ml wouldn’t do the trick. The amount I need has gone down considerably. Generally 2ml was working. However, on two occasions in the past month the 2ml dose didn’t keep it up long enough to get ‘er done. I had to add a booster shot of 1ml. This negative needs a bit of background explanation though. Not only do I have ED, but delayed ejaculation, which means by definition, it takes me over 30 minutes before I shoot. In fact, I timed it the last time .2ml didn’t work and I held out for 60 minutes before experiencing that much anticipated rush and release. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the wife may have been more than satisfied, but it left me feeling like I had just run a marathon. I believe some of my middle-age medications keep my from evacuating my male-specific anatomical gland in a more reasonable amount of time. I’m working with my doctor to see if we can try something different that doesn’t have this effect.

However, that bad news is kind of offset by the fact that the last time I only used 1ml and it worked fine! Trimix can be kind of a guessing game sometimes. I’ve also done some experimenting with it. I tried a tiny 0.02cc (0.2ml) trimix injection twice. That’s just like two drops in the syringe. The result? 15 minutes at #4 and 15 more at #3. On another occasion I got a #3-#4 for a few minutes without any kind of medical intervention. Some other noteworthy results have been that I’ve had nice hard morning wood every single morning. Viagra also worked well enough for oral sex.

You can find more details on my blog: shockwavefored.blogspot.com

What is the frequency range that the machine operates within? I know its ultrasonic, but I wonder if it has to be more specific to net the physiological response that it gets. Does the machine or its accompanying manuals or literature tell you anything about this?

Thank you!

Golddinger, if you go to his blog you can find a lot of his research that he has posted or linked to, including what settings he uses.