Just turned 30 - reflections on a lost decade and conflicted about implant (advice welcome)
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:50 pm
Hi all,
I've just turned 30 and it's prompted a lot of reflection. I grew up with a lot of anxiety, particularly socially, so wasted a lot of years in my shell. By my mid-20s I'd shaken a lot of that off and I had my first experience with ED during my first sexual encounter. I was a little drunk at the time and entirely blindsided, didn't think too much of it but it happened again the next time (both ONSs). This kicked off a pattern whereby I would: go out and have a ONS -> be unable to perform -> avoid sex until I felt it might be different this time -> repeat. Over the years I started using Cialis and whilst it works when I'm on my own it's yet to work for penetrative sex. I've found I need constant stimulation to maintain an erection and maybe this is why the point of penetration is an issue for me.
I'm booking an appointment with a urologist to check for whether there are any physical factors to consider, but for the moment I'm assuming its a fairly extreme psychological case. Since learning about implants I'm now at a crossroads:
- On the one hand all my sexual experience has been ONSs or after a few dates with someone where I knew it wasn't going anywhere, I feel like if I connected with someone in a meaningful way maybe that would ease my psychological performance anxiety and I could have a regular sex life after having that experience. If an implant is a final-line treatment and my case is psychological maybe I should spend time trying to address that before taking a more drastic, irreversible step.
- On the other hand, I'm getting older, ED has already taken years from me. I want to explore my sexuality as well as have a family in the future, on that front I'm beginning to feel like I'm running out of time and an implant would be a guaranteed solution. After years of hiding from the world the confidence of knowing I could not just perform, but go over and over on-demand, would be (I imagine) transformative.
Anyone else tempted by the implant but conflicted?
Any thoughts would be welcome.
I've just turned 30 and it's prompted a lot of reflection. I grew up with a lot of anxiety, particularly socially, so wasted a lot of years in my shell. By my mid-20s I'd shaken a lot of that off and I had my first experience with ED during my first sexual encounter. I was a little drunk at the time and entirely blindsided, didn't think too much of it but it happened again the next time (both ONSs). This kicked off a pattern whereby I would: go out and have a ONS -> be unable to perform -> avoid sex until I felt it might be different this time -> repeat. Over the years I started using Cialis and whilst it works when I'm on my own it's yet to work for penetrative sex. I've found I need constant stimulation to maintain an erection and maybe this is why the point of penetration is an issue for me.
I'm booking an appointment with a urologist to check for whether there are any physical factors to consider, but for the moment I'm assuming its a fairly extreme psychological case. Since learning about implants I'm now at a crossroads:
- On the one hand all my sexual experience has been ONSs or after a few dates with someone where I knew it wasn't going anywhere, I feel like if I connected with someone in a meaningful way maybe that would ease my psychological performance anxiety and I could have a regular sex life after having that experience. If an implant is a final-line treatment and my case is psychological maybe I should spend time trying to address that before taking a more drastic, irreversible step.
- On the other hand, I'm getting older, ED has already taken years from me. I want to explore my sexuality as well as have a family in the future, on that front I'm beginning to feel like I'm running out of time and an implant would be a guaranteed solution. After years of hiding from the world the confidence of knowing I could not just perform, but go over and over on-demand, would be (I imagine) transformative.
Anyone else tempted by the implant but conflicted?
Any thoughts would be welcome.