Another newbie

[OldMikey]

68, Tx. single

I was very happy to find this site, useful forums about ED seem few and far between. In addition to other health issues, my ability to an achieve erection has vanished completely over the last 18 or so months. Even though I am not involed with anyone I still wish to regain the ability to become erect.

I do not wish to use surgical or medical approaches so I have begun to use pelvic floor exercises and prostate massage in the hope of showing some improvement. Once I can get off the blasted blood thinner I also intend to explore herbal supplements and perhaps a VED to help. Any recommendations for VEDs would be appreciated. I was rather surprised at the lack of discussion topic about herbal supplements on the forum, perhaps one will be added.

Be well everyone,

Mike

[GoodWood]

Welcome to the forum.

There is quite a bit of information scattered throughout the forum regarding vitamins, minerals, herbals, off-book use of other meds. Experimental meds.

I wish you the best of luck on your journey. You said your ability to get an erection has completely vanished. You sound like you are well past the point of herbal supplements. But keep us posted on what you find.

[OldMikey]

Welcome to the forum.

There is quite a bit of information scattered throughout the forum regarding vitamins, minerals, herbals, off-book use of other meds. Experimental meds.

I wish you the best of luck on your journey. You said your ability to get an erection has completely vanished. You sound like you are well past the point of herbal supplements. But keep us posted on what you find.

Thanks for the good wish GoodWood. It might be too late for me supplement wise but I gotta try anyway

[Old Guy]

Welcome OldMikey. FT is full of very good information if you're suffering from ED. Hope you find a solution.

My experience with herbal and other so called male sexual enhancers did zero for me. Tried several, best I got was a headache. Only thing that worked was Viagra.

[Alan810]

To OldMikey: I have a similar problem in that I cannot achieve and erection but still have feeling down there. I've been through al of the pills and could not use them for various reasons, or they did nothing. Went thru shots: Trimix and Double strength. Helped sometimes and uncomfortable sometimes. Tried different VED's and have great results with the Osbon Erecaid Classic with 2 of their rings. Use it once a week and it hasn't failed me yet.

[bldoink]

Welcome to the forum.

[OldMikey]

To OldMikey: I have a similar problem in that I cannot achieve and erection but still have feeling down there.-<snip>- Tried different VED's and have great results with the Osbon Erecaid Classic with 2 of their rings. Use it once a week and it hasn't failed me yet.

Thanks for the reference Alan. I had not heard of Osbon before and I must say, their products look good.

[Alan810]

OldMikey: There is a whole bunch of information on the VED (Pump) page here on FT. A lot of the guys have tried different combinations of pumps and/or constriction rings. The one thing we all agree on is if you use a ring or rings, they cannot be left on over 30 minutes and use plenty of lube. I prefer the Osbon rings because they are designed o cut off the veins allowing the blood to drain out of the erection. you have to experiment with different size to find what works or you.

[Lost Sheep]

68, Tx. single

I was very happy to find this site, useful forums about ED seem few and far between. In addition to other health issues, my ability to an achieve erection has vanished completely over the last 18 or so months. Even though I am not involed with anyone I still wish to regain the ability to become erect.

I do not wish to use surgical or medical approaches so I have begun to use pelvic floor exercises and prostate massage in the hope of showing some improvement. Once I can get off the blasted blood thinner I also intend to explore herbal supplements and perhaps a VED to help. Any recommendations for VEDs would be appreciated. I was rather surprised at the lack of discussion topic about herbal supplements on the forum, perhaps one will be added.

Be well everyone,

Mike

Welcome to the forum, OldMikey (Mike)

First of all, a vacuum is a vacuum. Anything that can produce adequate vacuum will do and I encourage you not to wait. Cycling your blood through your penis is healthy for those tissues and the stretching of penile tissues (whethe by actual erections or erections by vacuum) is important to maintain elasticity and size. For sex, rings are necessary. For penile therapy/rehabilitation, rings are counter-productive. A vacuum gauge is handy but not necessary as your comfort/discomfort level is a pretty good guide to keep you from over-pumping the vacuum.

Medical grade vacuum pumps are good, but expensive. The cheapest over-the-counter vacuum pumps will make the same vacuum but will not have the "nice-to-have" features like battery operation, easy-to-apply constriction rings (which I pointed out you don't want for maintenance therapy) different sized openings for you penis, retainers to keep your scrotum/testicles from being sucked into the vacuum chamber, etc. Medical grade pumps are likely to last longer, too, but at 5 to 10 times the price, I wonder if the extra service life is worth it.

I suggest you buy a cheap one, use it just for cycling your penis to erect/flaccid states for therapy. If you can get a good seal around the base of your penis, the size of the vacuum chamber is sufficient for you and the pum p mechanism easy enough to use, you are set for the near future. And, if the most complex part of the device breaks, you can replace it with a hand vacuum pump from an auto parts store very cheaply and it is unlikely to break within your lifetime.

[OldMikey]

68, Tx. single
I suggest you buy a cheap one, use it just for cycling your penis to erect/flaccid states for therapy.

It had never occurred to me that a regular therapy to encourage blood flow was needed until I read: https://augustams.com/how-to-use-a-peni ... -exercise/. If I can get off the blood thinner I plan to start an exercise routine to get 'back in shape'. Depending on how that goes I will look into constriction rings to maintain an erection.