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Hello FT community, I am new to the forum, and I would appreciate any advice from you guys a lot!

Here is my story:

I am only 25 years old, and suffer from ED since 3.5 now. As you can imagine I am struggling a lot with this condition,
especially because I am still young, overall healthy and not really supposed to have this condition at my age.
It has basically ruined my young years, which should be full of sexual experiences – and makes me highly depressed since I feel like never being able to have a long lasting relationship with a woman in all my upcoming years. It takes off a big purpose of my life and I'm fed up of seeing my friends getting into happy relationships and me struggling so much, just because of my ED. I am a nice, good looking and tall guy, but all relationships and dates I had endend sooner or later because of my ED. I just feel like isolating, until I find any solution of this beast of a problem, it affects my life soo much in a negative way.

Until I was 21 everything was great for me. I had the best erections and super high libido. But then suddenly, strong erectyle disfunction hit me unexpectedly.
It came all of a sudden 3.5 years ago, and was at a time of a lot of alcohol consumption during approx. 2 weeks in my exchange study semester,
so that's probably what caused it (since it's the only possible explanation for me). I didn't think it was permanent and that it even gets worse and worse, I just had no clue about anything like this.
It started off already pretty severe and made me very insecure. Finally, one more party vacation with my friends ruined everything. I highly regret this decison, to have taken that vacation, maybe before my nerves could've still being able to recover.
Then however, I was at the point, where I never got any spontaneous erections, neither during the day, night or morning (maybe slightly occasionaly in the morning) – so I'd say the ED got into a really advanced state.
The problem was I never really knew what it was. I am not an alcoholic. I just drank quite a lot during these 2 occasions. Otherwise I live a quite healthy life and do a lot of sports. I was also smoking during my exchange semester though, but otherwise just socially at parties.

2 years ago, I went to see a urologist in my home country in Europe, but he couldn't give me a satisfactory diagnosis in the end,
and just blamed it to be a psychological cause, when it is clearly not – since it's a condition that's always there, even when masturabating.
He didn't recommend me to do a doppler ultrasound or the like, for which I asked for to find out more.
Ever since, I tried all the different available medications and dosages (levitra, cialis, viagra...), and found that only the strongest dosage of sildenafil (100mg) could mostly help me to achieve intercourse, but even then it wasn't quite satisfactory and also expensive. I could also only come once, every time I took one 100mg pill, which wasn't satisfactory either.

My last and most recent attempt to make my ED better, was doing the low intesity shockwave therapy. I did 5 treatments, with a lot of hope. However, it only made things worse (probably damaged more nerves) and I should have done more research before going into it.
Though, now I found out with quite certainty, that my ED occured because of a autonomous neuropathy, caused by alcohol abuse within a short amount of time. Even though I told my urologist the same possible reason (which I had thought could be the cause), he said that this couldn't be plausible, in such a short amount of time. I now believe though that my nervous system was just too weak and that also bad nutrition lead to the nerve damage.
Now I am pretty sure about the cause. However, now I'll do all available tests to get a medical diagnosis, which still can be quite hard to get since it's tough to figure out nerve damage. My current state is that even with 100mg of viagra, I have a quite limp penis, despite the highest possible arousal and currently I don't feel like I am able have sex anymore.

Finally my questions are:
Do you think I am on the right way, and did anyone experience a similar history with his ED?
Also, the only solution (last resort) for me right now (even though I fear it a lot), would be to get an implant? Would you recommend me getting an implant soon, or do you guys think that there's still other things to try first and that I should wait more?
I also heard of nerve translpantation, however I have high doubt that it could work in my case (they do it mainly after prostatectomies), does anyone know more regarding this? Or do you think it could be good enough in the near future?
Should I proceed thinking about an implant, since my condition is really advanced, or wait? I mean I would do everything to regain spontaneous erections, but how possible is it in my case that I could get them back?

Maybe some of you can help me on my way to a rather normal quality of life and out of deep depression, thanks a lot!

I am curious as to why you think your ED issue is being caused by neuropathy?
Did you notice any other changes in your body or mental state occurring at the same time as your ED onset? Anxiety issues?

It is concerning that you are having this issue all the time. Given that the urologist should have investigated further.
Has your libido also dropped considerably?

A thorough hormone assay is advisable, including thyroid, androgens, gonadotropins, prolactin (in the rare case of tumor).
The alchohol incident could have just coincidentally occurred at approximately the same time of your issue. This cannot be ruled out.
A congenital problem lying dormant may have surfaced.
Can you masturbate to ejaculation? Have your ejaculate levels also dropped?
A sexual medicine doctor would be a good next step. Urologists can be of limited use sometimes.

I think you'll find that most people here with implants are very satisfied with them, and the most common complaint is that they'd wish they'd done the implant sooner

If you find pills aren't working you to have the life you want, I'd go for the implant. In my opinion things like injections or VEDs just arent a satisfactory solution to ED.

Simbarn wrote:I am curious as to why you think your ED issue is being caused by neuropathy?
Did you notice any other changes in your body or mental state occurring at the same time as your ED onset? Anxiety issues?

It is concerning that you are having this issue all the time. Given that the urologist should have investigated further.
Has your libido also dropped considerably?

A thorough hormone assay is advisable, including thyroid, androgens, gonadotropins, prolactin (in the rare case of tumor).
The alcohol incident could have just coincidentally occurred at approximately the same time of your issue. This cannot be ruled out.
A congenital problem lying dormant may have surfaced.
Can you masturbate to ejaculation? Have your ejaculate levels also dropped?
A sexual medicine doctor would be a good next step. Urologists can be of limited use sometimes.

Hi Simbarn, thank you for your reply.
The main reason why I think it is neuropathy is because I have other symptoms that indicate it, as far as I investigated it. I have a stinging pain in the area around my left testicle that occurres from time to time. I also told my doctor, so he examined the place but didn't find anything. I thought there is something clogged or the like but now I'm almost sure that it is nerve pain (of the damaged parts) that I am feeling. And yes I also noticed other changes in my body, like problems with the bladder, bowel and stomach, which I now found out are also common effects related to neuropathies. I went to regular doctors who examined me but they all didn't find anything. And now it makes sense because it's all related to damaged nerves and that's why they couldn't find a direct cause.
I didn't really notice changes of my mental state, I might've gotten a little bit more moony. Anxiety only came after a while when I found this issue is not going away, but getting worse.

My libido dropped a lot for sure. I mean with no erections occuring, I just don't know when I'm horny. I do feel the need to be with girls but it's just a weird feeling of sexuality, everything is suppressed. Knowing that I can't get erections just has lead me to fear sexual contact because I know it won't be working.

Yeah, I'll do the hormone testing now again, I got an appointment at an andrologist today. However, last time when I checked hormone levels, the levels were all good according to my doctor.

It could be also related to a congenital problem, true.. I mean I think I always had a weak nerve system and I used to be quite nervous and twitchy all my life and the same goes for my mom and my grandma. So I think that's why it could have damaged my nerves more easily, at least that's a theory of mine.

I can masturbate to ejaculation but only with a rather flaccid penis. I don't know about my ejaculate levels, I guess I should definitely let them check now and I'll tell the andrologist, but it seems as there is always plenty of ejaculate

wolfpacker wrote:I think you'll find that most people here with implants are very satisfied with them, and the most common complaint is that they'd wish they'd done the implant sooner

If you find pills aren't working you to have the life you want, I'd go for the implant. In my opinion things like injections or VEDs just arent a satisfactory solution to ED.

Hey wolfpacker, thanks for your reply.
Yes that's also what I figured from all the people on FT.
However, I am quite scared of such a highly invasive and irreversible surgery.
Also, I was wondering, isn't the glans always gonna remain soft with the implant?
I thought I might hope for nerve transplants to get better but I guess it's not gonna be working for me and in the near future and that getting spontaneous erections back is just wishful thinking but far from reality.
Do you have an implant yourself and are happy with it?

opolion wrote:

Hey wolfpacker, thanks for your reply.
Yes that's also what I figured from all the people on FT.
However, I am quite scared of such a highly invasive and irreversible surgery.
Also, I was wondering, isn't the glans always gonna remain soft with the implant?
I thought I might hope for nerve transplants to get better but I guess it's not gonna be working for me and in the near future and that getting spontaneous erections back is just wishful thinking but far from reality.
Do you have an implant yourself and are happy with it?

I don't have an implant yet but I'm about your age and in a similar situation. I'm sick of passing up opportunities with women, sick of pills not working, sick of wondering if I'll ever to be able to have sex whenever I want. I'm going to be going to the doctor soon to get the implant process started.

wolfpacker wrote:

opolion wrote:

Hey wolfpacker, thanks for your reply.
Yes that's also what I figured from all the people on FT.
However, I am quite scared of such a highly invasive and irreversible surgery.
Also, I was wondering, isn't the glans always gonna remain soft with the implant?
I thought I might hope for nerve transplants to get better but I guess it's not gonna be working for me and in the near future and that getting spontaneous erections back is just wishful thinking but far from reality.
Do you have an implant yourself and are happy with it?

I don't have an implant yet but I'm about your age and in a similar situation. I'm sick of passing up opportunities with women, sick of pills not working, sick of wondering if I'll ever to be able to have sex whenever I want. I'm going to be going to the doctor soon to get the implant process started.

I feel exactly the same as you man. I'm just trying to examine everything and try to get a diagnosis by seeing as many doctors as possible, (even though it's really hard with my case) before I take the next step of the implant. I know now for certain that it's not venous leak though. So I wanna check everything before I destroy my penis that seems to be healthy despite the fact that I cant reach it with any of my brain stimuli. Do you have an exact diagnosis of your ED from doctors?

hi .... opolion, have you tried pills daily like cialis? ... i am going through a similar situation at the moment the only thing found is high prolactin levels, it also gives me a pain in a testicle when i get my erections

Nadie123 wrote:hi .... opolion, have you tried pills daily like cialis? ... i am going through a similar situation at the moment the only thing found is high prolactin levels, it also gives me a pain in a testicle when i get my erections

Was the cause of your high prolactin determined? Did they do a CT or MRI to check for a pituitary tumor?
High prolactin will cause havoc with erectile function. It is the hormone released straight after ejaculation to help initaite the refractory period, when most males find it very difficult to regain an erection.

Nadie123 wrote:hi .... opolion, have you tried pills daily like cialis? ... i am going through a similar situation at the moment the only thing found is high prolactin levels, it also gives me a pain in a testicle when i get my erections

Hey Nadie123, I tried Cialis 20mg for like a week but it didn't really do much and I found the effect decreased day by day until I didn't react to it anymore.
The current urulogist prescribed me 5mg Cialis daily for 90 days, I'll probably start that now but don't think it will do anything. Do you have the testicle pain only when you have an erection?