Never_Enough wrote:Lost Sheep wrote:Never_Enough wrote:
Would that be the same for me as someone who can physically get an erection now?
I thought the vascular system was kept during surgery.
The corpus cavernosum tissues inside the tunica albuginea are displaced by the implant. This severely compromised if not actually damaged to the point of complete impotence. (I had one surgeon I interviewed tell me that the cavernosum tissues are removed, but he was a resident on urological rotation, so I now question the accuracy of what he told me.) The arteries that supply the blood that inflates the cavernosum to make an erection simply have no place to send that blood once the implant takes over the erectile function.
In short, you cannot count on any erectile function you had before the implant remaining after the implant.
Having said that, I did read a paper wherein 50% of a cohort of implanted men did have improved erectile function after the implant and one even had enough to have penetrative sex (at least once) without pumping up the implant. The speculation is that those men's ED was caused by venous leakage and the implant or the operation compressed the leaking veins to the extent that their ED was improved.
Ok thanks.
Im guessing this is why people say its a last resort... how did your implant go and could you get an erection before it?
I am actually a case on point. In 2016, I could still get erections to full size and almost full rigidity as I could for decades before (but not as rigid as those of my teenage and early 20s). But they would quickly collapse (from venous leakage apparently) without continuous vigorous stimulation to keep up maximum artertial inflow to overcome the venous leakage. Of course, such stimulation would quickly cause orgasm and refractory collapse...a Catch-22. The "window" between enough stimulation to keep my erection up and so much stimulation that orgasm would come eventually closed. So, I got an implant.
Fast forward to 2023 with a diagnosis of prostate cancer and October 2023 prostatectomy wherein the implant's reservoir (being in the way, unfortunately) had to be removed. (This is not a common circumstance, but it did happen to me.)
So, now, I am 100% impotent. No erectile activity at all. The implant cylinders and pump are intact and tied off. Placement of a new reservoir is promised wherein I will regain erectile function. But right now, there is nothing. One caveat: The prostatectomy was not the "nerve sparing" type. If it had been, I might perhaps get some engorgement of the spongiosum and if I did have some arterial flow and venous constriction that the erectile nerves usually generate, I might be able to find something going on. But I will add that even before the prostatectomy, when stimulated and my spongiosum tissues engorged, if I did not pump up the implant there was no structural shaft rigidity. Only a bit of engorgement of the shaft's spongiosum causing my penis to stand up a little. But that was far from rigid and NOTHING I would call an erection.