FrankTalk.org

I plan to do the penile implant next year. Now I am using the pump with the foam and the rings. My wife does not like the pump. She complains the rings (I need to wear 2 rings) and the shaft which is a little different from the natural erection (from her feeling). I want to know what's different between the fully inflated penile (after penile implant) and the pumped penile (girth, penile direction, hardness) from women's feeling. Which is more close to the the natural erection?

This is a great question. Can't wait to see the replys.

Cajun Jeff

Pumped lenght vs implant lenght, I think you will be shorter and possibly even sugnificantly shorter. In my case I ended up with an AMS LGX and it is more like my pre-pump lenght than the VED lenght. However I did not pump for over a year before the the implant because that no longer worked.
Feel natural? Yes to me it feels more natural than the VED erection with it's tight ring. I think the ring and all the pressure from the VED caused me to feel like my member was not mine, bigger, yes but sorta numb, that said the VED does make the glans very senstive which the IPP will not. The VED made me feel cold, dark colored and skin streched so tight I though it would tear open, none of that felt natural to me. Personally I much perfer the feel of the IPP erection, it's very natural feeling I think. As far as your sexual partner, maybe you should ask her which she liked the best, you before the VED days or the VED days.
Good luck in making your decision.

I know that the standard wisdom is that you will not reach the VED size with an implant. However, I'm not sure I fully understand why. I don't have an implant, and haven't met with an implant doc, though I have an appointment to do so, so I really am not well educated about this.

With a normal erection, and with a VED, I understand that you get engorgement of both the cavernosa and the spongiosum, which includes the glans. I understand the implant only works on the cavernosa, so you potentially lose the size that results from the engorgement of the glans (sometimes cited as 1/2 to 1/4 inch). Some implantees do report retaining or regaining some ability to engorge the glans with arousal and stimulation even with the implant, so to the extent that happens, it would mitigate the loss here.

However, as far as the cavernosa goes, Dr Douglas Milam, on his website, states "A penile implant expands the patient's own erectile bodies until the inherent elastic limit of those erectile bodies is reached. At that point the penis is rigid and cannot expand further. The implanted cylinders would be capable of expanding further in almost all cases, but are limited in their expansion by the elastic limit of the patient's own erectile bodies." (see http://milamurology.com/patient_informa ... f_erection).

If the limit in size of an implant is the patients own erectile bodies, then I would think that the same limitation would apply to pumping with a VED, as far as the cavernosa goes.

Therefore, I would think the implant should be able to produce the same size as the VED, except for the loss due to the engorgement of the glans.

Of course, many of us have lost potential size, even with a VED, due to disease or atrophy. So I understand that many never regain their pre ED size. But, the comparison we're talking about here pre-surgery VED vs. post-surgery implant, both subject to whatever disease and atrophy limitations exist.

What am I missing?

About the glands, I lost most of the engorgement ablity after my prostate was removed and the IPP did not help that as far as I can tell. On the lenght issue I can not really make comparisions VED vs, IPP because I stopped the VED over a year before the implant. But, here are my thoughts on that, it could be what is going on in the base of your penis that could make the difference, it is pretty easy to imagine the expansion of the visable part of the shaft but before the implant when things were working right, possibly there was expansion from within which pushed out the visable part out from your body making it effectively longer. With the IPP there is nothing in there pushing it out and I think even the reverse may be true in that some of the IPP's inflated lenght is absorbed into your body as it pushes both ways when it's inflated.
Now, I think you and others contemplating an IPP should forget about the lenght and just do it and see what happens. I mean when the doc and the IPP mfg. rep measure you after the hole is cut and discuss what they think is the right size, you will be asleep!! They won't wake you up and say," hey what do you think?" I believe the doc and the rep will want a good outcome and they already knbow you don't want to be gerkin sized . Pick a good doc, tell him hat you want and that's all you can do. Most people are pretty much happy afterward, I know I am.
Ron

This is my result: I was 7 1/4 long and 2 wide (inches) using the VED (and 7 1/4 stretch test in doctors office). I could drive nails with it, although the constriction rings weren't very comfortable. One ring wasn't generally enough (would lose my erection), but two rings were too much (painful and I could rarely achieve orgasm). I tried all sorts of various rings/various combinations, etc., by the way.

Now with the LGX implant inflated I am 5 long and 1 1/2 wide (almost). So I have lost almost 1/3 of my penis, but some people on here say some of it may reappear after a few months/years. Boy, I hope so; what a shock it was to me, losing so much of my penis! Especially, considering that most of the postings I had read on these blogs before surgery said a good, experienced doctor using an LGX implant would probably give me an even thicker penis than I already had, plus, it would be the same length as before, (or maybe 1/4 inch loss).

And last night my wife came to bed (where I had just been doing my nightly inflation), touched it and asked me "is it inflated now?" Boy, that wasn't very encouraging: she couldn't even feel the difference between inflated and uninflated. But the most depressing thing is the floppy head. The left cylinder stops far short of the head, and the right cylinder stops right at the base of the head. Hopefully, they will expand a lot and floppy head won't be an issue, but it definitely is an issue now.

Imagine how I feel having paid $22,000 out of pocket, traveled around the world, and still can't have sex (at least not the way I had hoped to from reading all the rosy posts here). I have some fairly extreme curvature now, too, and some tubing/right ball issues, but my provider told me these were normal. I'll post pictures if any of you are interested...........

I am not necessarily blaming anyone for any of my less than favorable results, however, and I hope that some of the issues will resolve themselves over time - trying to stay positive. Just don't have unrealistic expectations like I did (from reading the overwhelmingly rosy posts here). Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. That way you won't be too disappointed if you have a less than stellar result.

And I will continue posting here, not only to add balance to the forum, but also to keep the newbies informed of my results so that they will be able to make a more informed decision regarding their own implants. For the last few years I have read all of the positive and the negative postings on this (and the other) web sites (many times) and I have noticed that a lot of people who had bad results simply disappear. I don't know if their results changed for the good or the bad, or not at all. Thus, I will continue my updates for the next several months/years, as a sort of public service to those considering having an implant....................