Saga of a penile implant

[glider-man]

I believe I ended up with ED by taking many different anti-depressants and other psychotropic drugs over many years. Taking these drugs over the years (since my teens), I believe raised both my blood pressure and cholesterol, taking them certainly put weight on me. Over the long run, none of these drugs ultimately cured me of bipolar disorder. For that I ended up going several courses of ECT. When ED first reared its ugly head, drugs like Viagra worked reasonably well but as the years went on they became less and less effective. In fact, over time my penis shrunk. When I was a youth my length was 6 to 6-1/2 inches. Today I’m lucky to have 4-1/2 inches. When ED drugs failed to work I tried injections. Yes, injections of a powerful drug into the base of my penis. There are really no nerves there so the injections weren’t painful. The problem is they didn’t work very well. Finally, my urologist talked me into a penile implant, though it wasn’t a hard sell as I was ready to try anything to regain a “normal” sex life. What the doctor didn’t do a good job of was preparing me on what to expect for length and girth. He said that they stretch the penis as far as it will go and then they size the prosthesis accordingly. I don’t know, I kind of had the idea that being like a balloon, I could inflate to an acceptable length but I was wrong 4-1/2 inches is all she wrote. To add insult to injury, I had to have three surgeries because the first implant ruptured my urethra and had to be removed two weeks later. That left me catheterized for over a week while my urethra healed. I believe that the scar tissue from the first implant shortened my penis by an inch.
I’m not saying that a penile implant is a bad solution for ED. I’m just saying go in to it with your eyes wide open. Had I known that 4-1/2 inches was as good as it would get, I wouldn’t have gone through all that I did. Another thing to consider is that after surgery you can never go back. The spongy tissue, the corpora cavernosa, is displaced during the surgery and cannot be replaced should you change your mind afterwards.

[losangeles]

glider,
glad you are on board. i just joined this forum a few months. my user name is los angeles, because it was my first submarine. I am retired USN (ss) after 25 years. i am 59 years old and have had ed for about 6 years. Probably a side effect of my diabetes type II. Have tried the pills and that was great for a few years but kind of expensive. after that it was pump which worked but was damn trouble having to stop the flow of love making to pump up the penis. Tried that shots but i could not get past sticking my penis with a needle. it is just not natural and i did not get a real good erection and now take Cialias 5 mg daily and use the pump. it works but there had to be something out there that was better. I had a come to Jesus meeting with my Uro and we discussed all the pros and cons of the implants. based on his information and talking to the guy on FT i have decided to go ahead and get the implant this fall. that in a nutshell is my story. i have a few questions if i am getting to personal just ignore. Did you ever get a new implant? If not what do you use? What is your age and are you married or in a relationship? anyway glad you joined. I have found these guys in the chat room are full of information and nothing is off the table. Take care and i look forward to hearing more from you. LA

[rschweiger]

hey glen, thanks for the story and srry for your dissatisfaction I know there are good and bad stories of implants,unfortunately as we age we all seem to lose length as we age(I'm 41 and not what I was at 20) and then add in the desease and possible further loss from that and then the risk at surgery. Personally I got implanted cause I couldn't take the mental aspect of it anymore and at 41 wasn't ready to give it up.
I hope you find the happiness you deserve with your new self.
And just food for thought.....play w/a 6inch rope or 4 1/2 inch rod??
Best wishes,Rich.

[glider-man]

LA,

It's kind of hard to get too personal here don't ya think? Yes I do have an implant now. As I said, it took three operations to do it. To tell you the truth, if anything ever goes wrong with it, I'll have it removed but not replaced. To answer you other question, I have been married to the same gal for 37 years. We can't have "normal" sex as I am too small (she is rather heavy now). There is just not enough of me to make meaningful contact. To tell you the truth, we rarely have sex of any kind which works for us. I'll self gratify now and again but that's about it. Good luck with your implant.

Glen

[irishguy]

Hey glider i'm very sorry to hear about the loss in length.....

Just a question for you do you get engorgment of the glans?

did you ever take any of the oral drugs or muse to help with engorgment of the spogionosium??

also i have heard some people on this using a ved after implant to regain some length i dont know how safe/effective that is but ya sould look into it!!!

im getting my titan otr in 4 weeks. and im veding every day... im goin to have a strong word with the urologist too cause some of them and possibly yours errs(big time) on the side of caution and undersizes the implant...

was your stretched length close to 6 inchs?

[radiodec]

Been a while since I have been on here; too busy. I am now just 4 months into having an implant. Call me one of the better cases. Though it took two attempts to get the implant in. First attemp, scar tissue in the bladder neck didn't allow placement of the catheter so that was repaired and I had to wait just over a month for things to heal. Second attempt, all went well though the surgery ran long, 2.5 versus a planned 1.5 hours and I wound up with an alternative reservoir placement. Everything was excellent afterwards though. No pain once catheter was out in morning, little swelling, no bruising, and started using it ahead of schedule. Daily or better use now!

The size question: Back to where I thing I was prior to the implant. At least the stretched length is the same or a little better. I hadn't had a measurable erection in over a year before I went for surgery. Now I am at something over 6.75 inchees and the girth is over 5.5 inches. Biggest variable in implants is anatomy, and second biggest is skill and care of implanting surgeon. I was fortunate in both cases.

David
Radical Prostatectoy in 2000, went to injections, they failed in 2011, implanted November 2012. Age 66

[katsboytoy]

Hi Dave, Glen and others, It's also been awhile since I started using the needle, TRIMIX #9. Results were never that good and when I'm horizontal I lose it. Really thinking about an implant and after watching the videos many many times, I don't cringe anymore. I'm 70 and hope that the UR's can still do the operation.

[bob1138]

Hi katsboytoy,

I was implanted with the Coloplast Titan in December 2007 after developing ED Post-Prostatectomy in February 2004.
The Implant completely corrected my ED and restored both my sex life and the emotional bond with my wife.
We celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary September 8, 2012.
Honestly, I would do it again in a heart-beat!
Best of Luck,
Bob