If I knew then what I know now...

[AST2123]

Comparing implant to pills can make sense if the pills actually work. If you get 70-80% erection with pills and could not last for more than 5 minutes, then the implant wins. I can only compare if I get an excellent erection with a low dose of pills. Otherwise, no comparison.

[merrix]

As said, good question LS.

My answer? Needed some thought on that. I had ED always. Worsening as I got older. But already as a teen, I knew something was not right. Always struggled to maintain erections, even the spontaneous ones when young and when masturbating. Even the morning wood was not long lasting.
I found ways around it to have sex. Short, intense, not much foreplay, not too many (or any) positional changes etc.
Then I started to use pills when I was in my late twenties.
Helped. A lot in the beginning, but then less and less.
In other words, my sex life always sucked to some extent. I just didn't really understand how much since I never had a normally functioning dick to compare my status to.

But back to the question, and the answer.
When do I wish I went for the implant, knowing what I know now?
It is easy to say "as early as possible. Before 20. Why suffer through young years with shitty erections if there is a cure?".
But it is a big thing to get implanted at 20. And at that age, I most likely would not have gotten one through the tax financed health care system in my home country.
They would have insisted it was psychological, wanted me to do therapy, taking pills, blah, blah, blah. Just like they did when I approached them in my twenties.
And there was no way I could have paid for it myself at that age.

So practically, combining my ED with my life situation, I'd say I should have done it in my mid thirties. I could afford it, I could have gone with an international super surgeon, and it'd have saved me the worst 10 years of my ED. And - I was mature enough, and enough fed up with my ED, to be able to handle being implanted. I am not sure I would have been comfortable with the decision at twenty. I think I'd always have had the feeling of "what if they were right? What if it was only psychological and what if that therapy could have helped?". I just think that to feel comfortable with going through with an implant surgery, one has to know that he is at the end of the road. This is it. My dick sucks, it sucks like shit and it will always suck like shit. And I wasn't there at 20. It took longer to reach that point.

On the other hand, I did have sex all the way through my ED. My ED was not stopping me from entering into and staying in relationships. It was just frustrating to not be able to have as good sex as I wanted to, and it was hurting to know my dick didn't work as it should.
If My ED had been stopping me from even having sex, stopping me from getting into any relationships, then my answer would be different.
Then I'd have reached that end of the road state much sooner.
And my answer in this thread to this question would have been "as soon as I possibly could". Fixing that financial hurdle in whatever way required. Saving, loans, giving up other expenses - whatever.

Basically as I have said in the past - get implanted when you know you need to. When the quality of your sex is bad enough to make you feel miserable. When your ED hinders your life from developing as it should. When it eats you. When it makes you unhappy. When you know deep inside that this isn't going away.

And finally, what about other treatments?
As a young guy, if I needed a vacuum pump or injections, and it worked, that would not stop me from getting implanted. Those are stuff that just doesn't work well enough when you are young and dating. How the F do you bring a vacuum pump to a party?
But if pills worked, and worked well, that would be my choice as long as they really worked. Especially if Cialis worked well since it has a longer window, and you can just pop one after dinner and then, if it works, fuck anytime you want for the rest of that night.

[SquadCaptain74]

Concur with many.

I will add - being your own patient advocate is crucial. My PCP and urologists all pushed pills, pumps, patches, gels, injections, to the maximum...... Some worked. Most did not (regularly and with confidence). Finding a practice that LISTENED and provided the options was key and I couldn't be happier. Wish I would have pursued this 20 years ago MORE aggressively - but alas.

[Old Guy]

"If I knew then what I know now" ...

So I'm in the "then" category - no implant yet, but have ED - and I want to learn from my fellow brothers.

And Old Guy's sentence below stopped me in my tracks and made me want to ask this ...

- No planning sex
- Increased confidence of knowing I can, 100% of the time
- Increased satisfaction. Even if pills give me an erection, I constantly worry it'll go down, and therefore sex with my wife is not as enjoyable as it's meant to be
- Depression/Black cloud of ED gone

If I knew what I know now before taking that first Viagra, it would have been implant instead.

I think you have the answer. With pills it was always the question of do I take one tonight or not? Or taking one and coming to bed to a sleeping wife. Then when they started to fail even with increased dosage, and side effects of migraines just did me in. When I started injections it was something I thought I could never do, but for sex I braved it. That was planned sex (not good) or get hot and have to break the mood to go stick a needle in me. Then those failed and my dose was so high my penis would ache the next day. It was miserable and depressing to go through another ED phase when each drug failed. Then thinking about all the drugs in my system and will there be any long term effect? Never liked taking any pills, most don't like me anyway.
So, since my implant sex with the wife has been back to pretty much whenever we are in the mood. No interruptions, no confidence issues, get warmed up and enjoy ourselves.

[frank66665]

old guy, nice description, not flawless