My gradual, start and stop PE journey

I thought my history with PE might be of interest to some here. My lifestyle (kids, crazy job, etc) doesn’t really allow any kind of intense routine (and that’s probably for the best since I tend to be fairly obsessive once I really start something) but nonetheless over the years I’ve been able to jelq and pump with some regularity.

I started a jelq routine every other day in 2007 and believe I gained a little bit (approx 3/8”) of length, going from just a hair under 7” BPEL to 7.25” BPEL, around 5.25” MSEG, and probably plateauing there for many years. I had some pretty extreme (unrelated) health issues a few years after that, and probably went a year or perhaps two without any kind of sexual activity or PE routine. Here is what I looked like just before all that, approx 2012:

I can’t share any before-jelq pics.. They all have another person in them. Heh.

Fast forward a few years, I resumed the jelqing and then decided to try a water pump. I got a penomet and had some small initial gains but found it fairly hard to get a good pressure and keep the seal tight. My ability to use it was a little irregular, but I’d estimate I used it for 2-3 days in a typical week, and only once in a “busy” week. Some rare weeks when I was solo I’d use it 4 or maybe 5 times.

During this period I was typically getting to the 8.25” mark in the pump while pumping, and my best length was around 7.5” BPEL with around 5.5” of girth.

Six months ago I made an effort to improve my pumping technique, still using the light gray gaiter, but I tightly taped the seal between the gaiter and the tube with strong watertight flexible tape, and added a tiny dose (±10mg) of sildenafil on some days to maintain a good erection under the slightly pressure/discomfort of the pump. After a few months of this, and pumping 3 times a week, I am about a quarter inch past the 8.5” mark on the tube.

This is about an hour after a typical 10 minute session:

And this is the absolute max I’ve achieved, 15 minutes after a 15 minute session with the max pressure I’ve been able to obtain (at some point, the gaiter can’t be compressed futher, no more water can be squeezed out, and there’s no more internal erectile force extending the gaiter.)

In that state, I just hit 8” BPEL and 6” MSEG. Without any pumping, but max EQ, I’m now about 7.75” BPEL and 5.75” MSEG.

So, setting aside the “just after pumping” state, in 13 years of intermittent jelqing and pumping I’ve gained around three quarters of an inch of length and a half an inch of girth - not that impressive in some ways, but actually a 35% increase in volume, from 47.5 cubic inches to 65 cubic inches. The pumping is quick enough and the effects last long enough that it’s entirely possible to have sexual activity in the 8x6 state.

For me, there are just a couple downsides:
I have had a few small injuries, approx 1/4” red spots of tiny burst blood vessels. These have resolved in about a week typically, and afterwards I return to very low pressure for a while.
An intense session leaves me with tiny red pin-prick dots on the underside of the shaft. Not painful or permanent and I don’t think anyone has ever noticed.
Traveling with the penomet is a little bit of a hassle; it takes space and is not something you want a colleague to see. Once in perhaps a hundred airport security checks it was taken out by a TSA agent. They didn’t ask me what it was, and I don’t actually think they knew.
Sometimes, again after an intense session, I get a raised vein-like ridge running around my shaft just below the glans. This presents just like Lymphangiosclerosis, but just about always resolves within 10 or 15 minutes. Once it lasted a few days, which was uncomfortable.

I’ve appreciated browsing the forum over the years, and posting the occasional question, so hopefully the above is of interest to someone!

(I hope the link format is acceptable, I removed the IMG inline tags since I wasn’t sure if that was allowed outside the pic forums.