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Hello everybody,

This forum seems like the best place to talk about implants.
I am a 36-year-old man who has had ED for a while.
Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 12 years ago has been a trial. Dealing with ED led to medication. I've been prescribed Cialis and Viagra going back over 5 years. The latest time I talk to my doctor about it I was prescribed both again. They didn't work this time. And he said that the two options wear either the injection or an IPP. When asked which one they use AMS 700 LGX was given. I have so many questions!

My penis is over 15 cm long and I'm curious which size they can give me. These sizes are 15 cm, 18 cm, or 21 cm.
Getting the 18 cm would be ideal, but I'm curious if that's possible?
Would getting the 21 cm be doable?

I've been on Medicaid for the past 2 years, and being disabled Medicare starts for me in April.
Any idea what the cost to me will be?
Questions regarding what happens after it is implanted are important as well.

I'm a young man who needs this. Please lay your answers on me!

Good day RG.

I am just a dude on the internet, not a doctor or reliable source.

If you go to a high-volume surgeon, she/he will size you correctly. I too got all twisted by numbers and assumptive sizing before my implant. But only your doc will know how deep your crus is - that crus depth plus your stretched penis length will determine the size of your implant (roughly). The crus of your penis is inside of you - it's not part of your "over 15 cm long" measurement. The depth of the crus varies from person to person... So yes, 21 cm is doable for you mathematically based on your measurement; your surgeon will determine if it's doable biologically.

Remember you can search this forum for key terms (Medicaid, post-surgery recovery, etc.). I have the LGX - if you click on my user name you can find my post-surgery experience. Good luck mate! I would do it all again and hopefully will someday when I wear this one out.

I know what Medicaid is but I don't know if they have special rules. Typically, Medicare will pay 80% of the procedure. I have a Medicare supplement (not advantage) plan that paid the other 20%. Because I had reached the Medicare deductible for other reasons I paid nothing for the procedure. Once you are enrolled in Medicare you can have the doctor's office tell you if you need to pay anything.

The typical cost negotiated with Medicare is around $20K, give or take, so they would pay about $16K of it.

If you get an advantage plan, there may be exclusions for a penile implant.

Above all else, may sure you select an experienced surgeon if at all possible.

nerdynerd wrote:I know what Medicaid is but I don't know if they have special rules. Typically, Medicare will pay 80% of the procedure. I have a Medicare supplement (not advantage) plan that paid the other 20%. Because I had reached the Medicare deductible for other reasons I paid nothing for the procedure. Once you are enrolled in Medicare you can have the doctor's office tell you if you need to pay anything.

The typical cost negotiated with Medicare is around $20K, give or take, so they would pay about $16K of it.

If you get an advantage plan, there may be exclusions for a penile implant.

Above all else, may sure you select an experienced surgeon if at all possible.

Thank you very much for your response! Not being over 65 I was having issues signing up for medicare. The facts that disability automatically signed me up was a joy.

I will have to research the advantage plan.
If I can come away from this not owing anything it would feel like a huge blessing!

My surgeon is beyond experienced, and surgery will happen at the biggest hospital in a 80 mile radius. Geisinger Medical Center was were I received my diagnosis in 2012, and I go back way to often. Here's a link..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geising ... cal_Center

Thank you for the response!

portageriver wrote:Good day RG.

I am just a dude on the internet, not a doctor or reliable source.

If you go to a high-volume surgeon, she/he will size you correctly. I too got all twisted by numbers and assumptive sizing before my implant. But only your doc will know how deep your crus is - that crus depth plus your stretched penis length will determine the size of your implant (roughly). The crus of your penis is inside of you - it's not part of your "over 15 cm long" measurement. The depth of the crus varies from person to person... So yes, 21 cm is doable for you mathematically based on your measurement; your surgeon will determine if it's doable biologically.

Remember you can search this forum for key terms (Medicaid, post-surgery recovery, etc.). I have the LGX - if you click on my user name you can find my post-surgery experience. Good luck mate! I would do it all again and hopefully will someday when I wear this one out.

Thank you for your response!I would have to do research on the crus. Do they do testing prior to determine proper length?

Pretty sure my surgeon is very high volume. Geisinger medical center is where I'm going.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geising ... cal_Center

Thank you again for your response, it means so much to me right now.

RubyGee wrote:Hello everybody,

This forum seems like the best place to talk about implants.
I am a 36-year-old man who has had ED for a while.
Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 12 years ago has been a trial. Dealing with ED led to medication. I've been prescribed Cialis and Viagra going back over 5 years. The latest time I talk to my doctor about it I was prescribed both again. They didn't work this time. And he said that the two options wear either the injection or an IPP. When asked which one they use AMS 700 LGX was given. I have so many questions!

My penis is over 15 cm long and I'm curious which size they can give me. These sizes are 15 cm, 18 cm, or 21 cm.
Getting the 18 cm would be ideal, but I'm curious if that's possible?
Would getting the 21 cm be doable?

I've been on Medicaid for the past 2 years, and being disabled Medicare starts for me in April.
Any idea what the cost to me will be?
Questions regarding what happens after it is implanted are important as well.

I'm a young man who needs this. Please lay your answers on me!

Welcome to Franktalk. So sorry to hear of your MS.

When I first joined FrankTalk, I took a couple weekends to read through two and a half years of posts/threads with titles that interested me and appeared informative. I recommend this to you. It will give you a better basis for forming questions and understanding the answers. Also, your will find a lot of answers that may not be available because those answers were posted by members no longer active. But they are there if you cruise through old threads. It is well worth the time.

Personally, I also recommend doing extensive research on your chosen surgeon and interview him (or her) pointedly and make yourself an integral part of the medical team. (Of course, many men choose not to do that and I cannot fault them - just do what is comfortable for your personality and approach to your medical care.)

To answer your questions to the best of MY ability.

Your penis length is not your penis length. The inside of your penis is contains two tough, fibrous cylinders (tunica albuginea) which are filled with tissue called corpus cavernosum. The cavernosum, when a man is aroused fills with blood, inflating the tunica like a balloon, extending and stiffening the penis (erection). The implant replaces (or displaces) the cavernosum tissue because it has stopped getting or maintaining its inflation. The implant two tubes are inflated with a saline solution contained in a reservoir in the man's abdomen which is pumped there by a pump in the man's scrotum. That is how (and why) the implant works. But your penis' length extends past the tips of the tunica (the glans) and your erectrile tissues also extend deeper into your body than you can measure with a ruler, deep into your pelvic crus. The implant, therefore, extending all the way to the INSIDE of your tunica stops short of your penis' tip and extends further inside your pelvic crus than you can measure with a ruler. So, the implant size will vary from what you can see (and measure) of your penis. The amount of your glans in front of the implant and the depth of your pelvic crus behind the implant varies from man-to-man. So, two men, both with an 18cm erect penises may take vastly different lengths of implants. The rule of thumb is two-thirds of the implant is inside the pelvic crus. But that is just an estimate.

The determination of the length of implant will fit YOUR penis is taken during the operation by measuring inside each of your tunicas. Any other measurement is just an estimate (stretch test, etc) and subject to error.

So, yes a 21cm implant might well fit an 18cm penis. Because the two measurements are not measuring the same thing.

Along with injections and IPP (Inflatable Penile Prosthesis), there are also VEDs (Vacuum Erection Devices), urethral suppositories (of the same kind of stuff used for injections, but without sticking a needle in your penis) or just using a constriction ring to maintain an erection (if you can get an erection but the problem is that it does not endure long enough for sex)..

I know very little about Medicaid or Medicare, but many men on Medicare currently here are bound to answer about the latter. I hear it provides very good coverage.

Good luck.

USC DR LOh BOYLE SP? These guys are expensive and yes it is worth it!! Los Angeles

People on this forum tend to give you too many details. It's a good thing, but it can be overwhelming for newbies.

If you have a fantasy about having a longer penis, forget it. The answer is no. Implants won't change your size. You may gain/lose 0,5-1 cm, but that's it. Let's do the math. If your penis is 15 cm in length, you will (most probably) be implanted with a 21 cm implant. But that won't change your length. Because roughly 1/3 of that implant will be inside your body, which means you (and women) will only see 2/3 of 21cm.

The other question is the trickiest part. Picking a high volume surgeon is the single most important component of this process. You can go to the single most expensive medical facility in the world. That won't give you the best result. You don't need a great urology department of a prestigious facility. What you need is someone specialized in IPP surgery. Someone who almost exclusively performs IPP surgeries with great success rate.

Talking about Geisinger Center (or any other medical facility) doesn't mean much. Your thinking/research process should be based on microsurgeons, not medical centers.

satyrum wrote:The other question is the trickiest part. Picking a high volume surgeon is the single most important component of this process. You can go to the single most expensive medical facility in the world. That won't give you the best result. You don't need a great urology department of a prestigious facility. What you need is someone specialized in IPP surgery. Someone who almost exclusively performs IPP surgeries with great success rate.

Exactly. I know it may be very difficult for you to travel, but the result will be well worth it if you can. There are a number of well-regarded high-volume IPP surgeons mentioned on FT. You don't want a general surgeon performing complicated heart or brain surgery. You want a specialist.
PM me if you need any clarification on Medicare supplement vs advantage plans.

RubyGee wrote:Hello everybody,

I've been on Medicaid for the past 2 years, and being disabled Medicare starts for me in April.
Any idea what the cost to me will be?

It didn't cost a cent for me with Medicare.