Iodine Journal

Hey Yall.
Right around Christmas I began applying Povidone Iodine to my penis 1-2 times every day in the interest of dissolving and repairing collagen scar tissue accumulated over years of uncautious clamping and poorly practiced PE. My interest in doing so is twofold. 1 to soften the fibers of the tunica and enable me to achieve better results with any PE that I continue to do, and 2 if possible, to heal an old injury.

My EQ has varied quite a lot in the last years, mostly not bad overall, although I’ve had a soft glans for as long as I can remember, although I believe it stems in my particular case to a clamping injury that I foolishly didn’t let heal (do not be like me). I’ve written about this elsewhere, but for the sake of clarity, my corpus spongiosum quite abruptly ceases to get firm at the exact point where I used to apply my orange cable-cuff style clamp. This flacidity extends al the way up into and throughout my glans. It doesn’t affect my ability to have sex, but obviously is not something I would prefer to live with if there is a chance of undoing the damage I did.

I figure I might as well try to share my findings with everybody here, as I haven’t been able to find any other threads detailing a longer term and consistent trial with Iodine. I was messing around with DMSO, and I’ve been messaging with a user here who assures me of its safety, but I’ve been scared off of the stuff due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, at least for the time being.

Anyway, my procedure has been to apply a light coating of the iodine on the full circumference of my penis in the morning.
Today let’s say is about two weeks and so far I can’t quantify any concrete changes that couldn’t easily be explained by placebo, but I think I have noticed an increased pliability when doing my PE routines. No concrete changes with the soft glans or spongiosum.

I’ll keep better track of the timeframe from here on out, but for all intents and purposes, this’ll serve as day 14.

> quite abruptly ceases to get firm at the exact point where I used to apply my orange cable-cuff style clamp.

What do you think the problem is? Blood vessels crushed or scarred from the clamp? Something else?

If you have a pump and tube, can you get full-length firmness with that, or does it still change at the same place? As you go flaccid, does the damaged area soften first?

I think the problem is yeah, some part of the spongiosum that is supposed to seal off against the tunica was painlessly injured and never healed, and has now either scarred or atrophied or simply been obliterated. I wish I had a better understanding of the anatomy involved but it very very sharply remains flaccid from the very site of where I used to clamp up to and through the glans. I can’t say it goes flaccid -first- since I wouldn’t say it ever becomes really erect. It does surge throughout an erection if I kegel or reverse kegel but immediately goes flaccid, the whole affected area simultaneously.
It does appear to get erect in the tube but once out of the tube will go flaccid.
I’ve weighed the possibility of it being a pelvic floor muscle imbalance but I have a memory of clamping way too intensely and feeling the “pop” that people describe in tandem with penile fractures and very very foolishly, maybe fearfully ignoring it.

I’m very lucky in that my penis remains erect enough to function more or less normally. I appreciate the interest, and welcome any kind of feedback, for sure.

Edit: oh yeah, Andy, re our message exchange regarding DMSO, I found the study that seemed to be the source of my qualms about DMSO and it’s dangers for the brain, but it appears that it might only be dangerous for the developing brain, interferes with some kind of developmental neurological pathway. I’ll post it here when I can pull it up again.

The pump shows you’re getting blood flow, but it’s not staying in the end of your shaft like it’s supposed to. That suggests you damaged some of the valves that maintain an erection.

The next reasonable step would be to get some imaging of the blood flow in your erect shaft. The point(s) of damage should show up clearly. Maybe some of the one-way valves are being held open by scar tissue or something like arteriosclerosis of the penis; they might be able to go in and free them surgically. It’s not like you have ordinary ED, that nobody knows what causes. You can point to the problem area right now, you just can’t see below the surface.

I agree. I would love to get some doppler or ultrasound imaging done. I haven’t looked into it yet because I stubbornly tend to avoid trips to the doctor and I’ve been running with the assumption that any surgical solution would either be prohibitively expensive or unhelpful. But you know, you’re definitely right and it’s clearly pretty insane of me not to go in and ask somebody to take a look. I appreciate the input, very much!
There’s quite a labyrinth of posts on here regarding suddenly deflated glans post-PE, although most people didn’t describe any specifics that too closely resembled my own situation or explicitly linked it to clamping.

In any case, still at it with the iodine, though at your advice I’ve diverged from the experiment here and there and included DMSO. I guess the experimental aspect of this thread is slightly compromised by that but if I end up fixing a spongy glans that’s gonna be a valuable allegory regardless, I’m thinking.
I have noticed what seems like a little more firmness in the glans than I’ve tended to over the last few years so I’m feeling good. Much too soon to tell I think though.

I’m gonna go ahead and look up a urologist around here.

Nowadays any kind of “imaging” (X-rays, MRI, sonograms, whatever) usually gets emailed to an imaging specialist, who sends his interpretation of it back to your doc. You want a copy of that. And as you leave the urologist’s office, you should ask for a copy of your patient record; they will generally send it to you in a few days since it has to go through a transcription service and the doc is supposed to look it over to make sure nothing got garbled. Some places don’t want to give you copies of lab, imaging, or patient records, but that’s what you just *paid* for.

Most places, office visits are rigidly scheduled. Many docs are willing to talk on the phone after patient hours. With the pictures and report in hand, you can have him go over anything that wasn’t clear at the office.

Depending on what the images show, the doc may not know what to do. That’s okay, but some docs get upright about admitting it. You should ask something like “what’s the next step?” or “where do we go from here?” I expect that would be a referral to someone who can run a tiny camera in there and look at the valves directly, just like they do for cardiac work. It’s pretty common stuff, now that the equipment is cheap and easily available, and it’s why laparoscopic surgery is practical now.

Uh… I’ve been dealing with the medical industry way more than I wanted for the last few years, and sometimes I climb on my hobbyhorse… I’ll go shout at someone who needs to get off my lawn now.

Very much appreciated!

Man!

Okay, well! Today I woke up with very solid morning wood, which is always nice. But for the first time in maybe 7 years, my spongiosum was what I would characterize as -solid-. Certainly not quite as hard as the corpus cavernosa but it is a significant enough difference from business as usual that I’m truly taken aback. This seems to remain true this evening. I certainly didn’t expect any results from this to occur so quickly, and frankly I remain skeptical. Or however you would want to call disbelief.

I can’t say that I would attribute this unequivocally to the Iodine, since I’ve also been very steadily supplementing 2x a day with 500mg vitamin C and only recently have started doing 6-8 hour stretches with an improvised golf weight-esque ADS thing I’ve made. I also applied DMSO either two or three times in these last weeks along with the iodine. That is an extreme substance, and I remain wary of it.

I do think that the ADS could play a role, but I have no medical expertise or knowledge that could verify the theory at work there (something along the lines of application of forces along axes that the tissues aren’t used to, and this spurring healing and repair mechanisms to go back to work).

I also remain skeptical that this wasn’t somehow a fluke or something, perhaps my EQ was just so high this morning that blood was pumping in faster than it could clear from my spongiosum, but either way I’m going to stick with this for a while longer. It’s been a little over a month, which is a reasonable timeframe for regular wound healing, but I have no idea what is reasonable for healing what I’ve come to accept is an old and scarred wound like this.

I want to reiterate that this is not a psychological issue for me. I’ve been able to obtain strong erections for years, and have used cialis to do so at times. But even with Cialis, never since I injured myself over-aggressively clamping have I had this level of firmness return to my spongiosum. The usually soft glans is firmer as well but seemed to have changed slightly less than the spongiosum.

Anyway, it feels a little too easy, too good to be true, so I’m going to abstain from coming to any conclusions at this point. Still, I’m very excited. For those who might be suffering from ED that stems from an injury like mine, this is very promising.

If it’s not a fluke, you might have popped some valves loose so they’re working again.

You might postpone the urologist appointment for a while and see how things progress.

Well, it does not appear to be a fluke!
Urologist postponed!
I have to say I’m riding high right now, this is a great feeling. Also, generally speaking I feel like I’m in a real groove with PE overall as well. I don’t think it’s just the Iodine alone, doing low weight ADS with golf weights, and 500mg Vitamin C twice a day (as a collagen precursor) I feel like the three of these new changes have really supercharged my PE.

The partial recovery of my C. Spongiosum is obviously a great feeling, but my glans is still largely soft throughout an erection, it doesn’t seem to have changed much at all so far. But I believe I’ve said earlier, it does get very erect with use of a cock ring at the place where my spongiosum was injured so I do believe that there’s some sort of a connection, although it may be less direct than I suspect. I’m gonna stick with what I’m doing and see if things keep improving. Feeling good!

Well, since I’m apparently your Designated Creepy Stalker, anything to report? It has been three weeks.

> my glans is still largely soft throughout an erection

Uh… maybe this is a stupid question, but is that a problem? Mine never changes size and is always soft, even when I have wood that goes ‘ping!’
Nobody has ever made a comment about it, and I never thought of it as a problem. [goes off with something new to worry about…]

When you use DMSO and Iodine, only use 70% external never 100%.

Take a look this is what I use: Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) - Jacob Lab - DMSO 70% Gel - 4 oz.

Whoops! Looks like these replies have flown under the radar.
Honestly I’ve gotten progressively less consistent since just about my last post on this thread, applying iodine once every few days, but the improved spongiosal firmness has remained. I would say that it still ‘deflates’ faster than my cavernosa but it is an undeniable improvement over the last many years. I’ve started Kyrpa’s ultrasound protocol, pursuing a hunch that doing some targeted length work could trigger some parallel repair mechanisms that I haven’t really accessed before, since I’ve almost never done any hanging or length focused work. Perhaps a half baked theory but if part of my problem is related to the extremely common pelvic floor imbalance, I suspect having stretch applied to those tissues could shake things up down there too.
My EQ right now isn’t terrible but isn’t the best it’s ever been but this has pretty directly coincided with taking up a length and hanging routine, and if we still have any faith in the Limiting Factor theory then that’s normal.
I think I will get back to the consistent daily iodine now that I know at least one other person is interested in the results! I intend to do a deconditioning period relatively soon and I’m still considering whether to keep up the iodine during that or to just leave everything to its own.

Regarding the soft glans, you know I can’t even remember if my glans ever actually used to get hard or not, so truly, don’t let me instill an anxiety where there isn’t one!! I’ve just assumed it’s a tandem result of my spongiosal injury, although still no change with the glans so far, so maybe not?
The interest is appreciated! Hope this idea helps somebody!

Do you mean 70/30 DMSO/Iodine? Or 70% concentration DMSO? I’m assuming the latter but what’s your reasoning for that? I was assuming that we wanted the most pure form available, with the fewest possible unknown additives. I thought I’d read that in the big DMSO iodine thread… But regardless I don’t mess around with DMSO anymore for a few reasons, it’s just too aggressive a substance for my comfort zone, and I feel that I’m getting good results without it anyway. I think daily DMSO application for any extended time frame could be a very bad idea. Someone somewhere put forward the idea that we really don’t know how effective it is at breaking down collagenous structures, and if it’s too good at that, that we might potentially be able to slowly undifferentiate crucial tissue structures or collagen fiber orientations beyond what would be helpful. But don’t take my word for it. I can’t remember the source of any of that info.

Update: So I neglected this protocol for most of the last year, for no very clear concrete reason, but in the last month have come back to it with a vengeance. I’ve been applying Povidone Iodine 2-3 times daily for the last month almost every day and despite still engaging in rather vigorous PE exercises, I feel that I have noticed definite improvement! I have been waking up with a firm spongiosum semi regularly now, which is extremely new. This is all paired with doing rather intensive cardio and weightlifting to try to keep testosterone and GH levels naturally elevated and for vascular function, and that most definitely plays a part in erectile quality. But I definitely attribute the firmer spongiosum to the iodine, since I have had periods of consistent cardio and exercise that haven’t come with the increased firmness.
Anyway, still at it, and for those who may not want to be putting DMSO on their genitals or near their testes (I fear the possibility of having a high strength solvent pass through your testicles causing birth defects) the straight iodine may be able to do the trick on its own, it is rather aggressively absorbed by the skin, and although I am not so familiar with the relevant physiology, I am running with the assumption that it is able to penetrate some of the subdermal layers with a comparable efficiency.

And if not, I do not want to know! Because this placebo effect is awesome!