First post: advice needed! :-)

[Inselaffe86]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the board so please be gentle. I'm looking for a bit of advice and wisdom to help me with my situation. It's a very long story but essentially, I've been struggling with erections for over six years now. I´m now 32 so the onset came early in life for me. I've lost virtually all morning erections and never get spontaneous ones at all. Masturbating has no effect also. The only way I can achieve one is through stimulation with my partner. Then in terms of firmness we`re talking 50% of what they used to be. When it all started the doctors thought prostatitis a likely cause as I had all kinds of pains in my groin and testicles and I was suffering severe pre-cum leakage from the head of my penis, but they were never really able to get to the bottom of this aside from operating on me to remove a hydrocele. I´ve had all the tests, ultrasounds and scans done that you can imagine and now the diagnosis is a venous leak. However, this seemed to be more of a guess than anything because they weren`t able to detect the exact source. The doc reckoned it must have been a minute vein that was responsible. Now I feel I´m at a bit of a crossroads and I´m looking for some help and advice. When I last saw the consultant they started to talk to me about pumps and such like, and so I`d like to hear from those of you with experience in that area as to how effective this would likely be? Is it a solution that can improve the situation to some degree? If so, how do I go about it? I`d really love any tips you can pass on as this has blighted my life for so long now.

[philly444]

i am going to send you a PM

[Inselaffe86]

i am going to send you a PM

Thanks, that would be much appreciated!

[antelope]

It may be that the most likely remedy for ED when its cause is Venous Leak is an implant. Normally, I would say you should try injections before moving up to surgery, but I'm not sure injections can overcome Venous Leak. Others in the site will know more. Stay tuned.

[60s_surfer]

Based on my own experience, I would try the conservative treatments first. An implant is an irrevocable decision. In my case, although I have a venous leak, a combination of injections plus a constriction ring gives me a hard enough erection for intercourse. The constriction ring appears to overcome the leak well enough that my erection is quite usable. I started on the injections only after the PDEi medications (Viagra, cialis, levitra) gave me side effects that were intolerable. However, I used them for almost 15 years successfully. I suggest you try a vacuum erection device with a constriction ring to see if this helps. There is lots of information on Franktalk about all of these treatments. If none of the other treatments work, then it is time for the implant in my view.

[Inselaffe86]

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I’m definitely keen to try a pump as there seems very little to lose. Do they lose their effectiveness after a while or could I expect to see some results if I kept using it on a daily basis?

[bldoink]

I don't see any down side to using just a pump for therapy and adding a constriction ring for sex. If you require a tight constriction ring then limit ring usage to 20 to 30 minutes.

However you might gain some success just using a novelty or sex shop cock ring. They vary a lot so you will have to experiment to find one that works for you. Or novelty rings combined with Viagra.

Injections may also be an option worth looking into if the ring and pump options don't work out.