Dr. Ralf Herwig claims that he cures Venous Leak

[merrix]

Well, as we say where I am from 'one swallow makes no summer'. And I guess some good sexual experiences during 3-4 months when full of Viagra doesn't make a sclerotherapy a life long success either. But anyway, I am very confident and certain that the sclero still 3.5 months after the surgery has a more or less same great improvement as it had immediately post-op.
Only problem is I'm still depending on pills. And I am not sure I think good sex when depending 100% on Viagra is good enough for me. And still too short time to say whether the sclero+pills is a consistent success or if there will still be failures every now and then. Still considering implant, but will wait a few weeks to see where things are going.
Will keep you updated.

[alibaba]

I hope it works for you unlike several who said it was yet a still in study experimental process yet. At any rate, with pills and such it is just a temporary patch on a worn out tire. Been through a lot of those patches and ready for new parts. Pills also eventually work less and less like the injections. d

[merrix]

Well, again, the question is what is 'works'?
As it seems now, things work quite well wiIth tablets. But the thing is I still hate that. I hate being dependent on tablets, which must be taken 45 minutes before. I want to be able to do it in morning first thing when I wake up, or just spontaneously in the shower on a lucky afternoon.
Which means I think even though the sclero made a huge difference, what it really did was making me realize how good it could be if there was no ED at all. Hence implant is still my plan.

[merrix]

4 months past now since the sclerotherapy.
And the sad truth is that it didn't work for me. There is an improvement, but no way near was it a cure.

I guess Dr Eid (one of the most famous implant surgeons in the world) was right when he said that any surgery to treat VL is like giving aspirin to someone with pneumonia. They don't need aspirin, they need antibiotics. Aspirin will treat the symptoms (fever, pain) short term, but it won't cure the disease.
Same with surgery for VL. It will treat the symptoms short term, but it will not cure the underlying problem which creates the leakage. Fix one leak with surgery and the underlying problem will soon cause a new leak.

Unfortunately I believe he is right.

[gollam121]

Very wise words from Dr Eid my Uro said pretty much the same and I wish I had consulted him before going ahead.

I can't turn the clock back but I regret paying thousands of pounds for experimental rebooted surgery and although you appear to have seen a minor improvement I got worse.

I worry for the likes of Seeking who also quickly deteriated and we haven't head from in on this forum for quite a while.

We all made our own choice but I remain concerned that the clinic still continue to offer false hope to VL sufferers.

Gollam121

[gollam121]

Just to add I to my last post, I thought for some time that Scelrothreapy is just a quick money spinner because it's packaged as minimal invasive so the risks appear low.

With what Dr Eid said to Merrix and my Uro to me, I'd like to write a letter of concern to London Andrology so that other men looking for a magic cure don't get sucked in like me.

So if anyone wants to support me then I'm more than prepared to lead this.

More importantly I'm sick of the lack of awareness of a Venous leak so want to hear ideas of how we could promote awareness?

Gollam121

[merrix]

We should all do what we feel is right.
Personally, I have no interest in putting more energy into this. I am now focused on my implant surgery and don't want to spend time or energy on this.
Furthermore, I don't know what is true. Kuehas and Herwig have a personal (=financial) interest in promoting sclero and convince patients to try it. On the other hand, Eid, as a leading implant surgeon, has an interest in convincing patients that VL can only be permanently fixed with an implant.
I would also guess that Kuehas and Herwig actually believe in the sclero. After all, if it is an obvious scam, they are putting their reputation and careers at stake, and I am sure they don't want that. That if anything would have a huge impact on their personal financials.
In the end I am just looking at it as that we must all make informed decisions and live with them.
It would have been different if I got worse - very different - but I actually did get slightly better. Just nowhere near enough better to be cured.
I knew it was a gamble and I took the chance. It didn't work out and now I move on to the next step.

My advice to you Gollam is just to do what you feel is right for you.

[Echegollen]

Just to add I to my last post, I thought for some time that Scelrothreapy is just a quick money spinner because it's packaged as minimal invasive so the risks appear low.

With what Dr Eid said to Merrix and my Uro to me, I'd like to write a letter of concern to London Andrology so that other men looking for a magic cure don't get sucked in like me.

So if anyone wants to support me then I'm more than prepared to lead this.

More importantly I'm sick of the lack of awareness of a Venous leak so want to hear ideas of how we could promote awareness?

Gollam121

With all due respect, I think are you overreacting like you did before. It's not because you and Merrix had poor results that sclerotherapy is ncessarily useless. I believle we still don't have enough information to make a good judgement call about this treatment. Just because we didn't hear from Seeking, it doesn't mean his condition got worse. Maybe he is still waiting a little longer to really make a good assessment. II would say the same thing in regards to Razor. We didn't hear from him for quite a while but let's not jump into conclusion too soon. I know it must be very frustrating for you to have spent so much money for something that got you worse. I really feel sorry for you and I hope you will have a lot of success with an implant. However, I think it is still too early to say that sclerotherapy is a scam.

[merrix]

As far as I remember, both Seeking and Razor reported various degrees of lost effect eventually. Seems none of the four of us doing the sclero were cured. I am no statistician, but if Herwigs stated success rate (as in no need for pills anymore) of 60% is true, then I think it means there is a 2.5% chance that 4 guys out of 4 fall within the 40% group.
I won't say it's a scam either. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't.
I do however find it strange that no other surgeon in the world offer this treatment. Sclerotherapy is an old proven method for other issues. A well known method. If this was applicable for ED, why don't this get widespread?

Anyway, none of this matters to me.
I have no regrets. Actually I am glad I did it for two reasons.
1 - When the great initial effect disappeared, I finally fully realized the extent of my ED. That's what made me take the decision to once and for all solve it.
2 - The lasting effect so far is a better glans engorgement. This is something I will benefit from even after the implant surgery.
Plus, it was a chance worth taking. If it had worked, it'd been a complete life changer at a negligible cost in comparison to the benefit.

Good luck to all of you considering the sclerotherapy. I have no advice to give. I just share my experience to give you all the best chances of taking an informed decision.

[C_lab34]

I think it would be harsh and a little paranoid to call sclerotherapy a scam, but it does seem that it doesn't differ fundamentally from any other vein (collapsing or removing the vein) centered venous leak treatment. We who suffer from venous leak need to remember that the very term 'venous leak' is more of an umbrella classification. There are so many veins in and leading out of the penis, so many potential leak points, that zeroing in on either the dorsal, or the crural, or wherever else, is at best a short term fix. I think it is pretty widely established, by now, in western urological medicine, that unless we are talking about a specific case of very localized trauma to maybe one or two veins or arteries, the true source of venous leak lies in the smooth muscle tissue, in the way that the tissue expands and pinches off the veins to prevent excessive outflow. Venous leak is really a disorder of the smooth muscle tissue, and there are several different layers of this tissue that I can't even recall, where some kind of defect could be present. I have had it repeated to me by a couple of different american sexual medicine specialists that the problem is cellular, so it makes sense that macroscopic surgical intervention would be largely ineffective. It's a genetic thing. There's no amount of cutting, removing, or collapsing, that will change the nature of the way the cells in the muscle tissue operate, i.e. it's really a matter of the messages sent back and forth in that tissue. It is some kind of breakdown, static, or interference that prevents the organ from functioning the way it should. The whole idea of centering on the veins and ligating or shutting them down was a valiant attempt to solve a truly soul crushing disorder, but I think it has mostly been left behind for good reason.

There is even a doctor in Taiwan, Geng Long Hsu, who specializes in a radical ligation surgery that aims at curing venous leak. It is rather grueling and grisly from what I can tell, several hours long of painstaking vein removal. He touts his successes, but the only forum where you can get any feedback on this surgery from people who have had it, has a palpable atmosphere of anxiety, full of people monitoring their minor improvements, setbacks, regressions, etc. It is not a happy place and there are few, if any, real success stories.

Meanwhile, the frank talk implant forum has an entirely different feel to it. Sure, there are some unhappy recipients for various reasons, but it seems to me that the large majority are very happy with it. You can tell that people are genuinely cured of their ED in a way that no other treatment can offer; it's a much more profound transformation of a condition. All other treatments for ED and venous leak are just that, treatments. The implant is the only cure. This reasoning has led me to my upcoming implant and I am just sharing it. I don't want anyone to think that they must get an implant if they think they can live without it, as it is still a major surgery and totally irreversible. I am only trying to provide some perspective to fellow sufferers of venous leak, many of whom have probably wasted as much time as I have, reading journals, scouring the internet, trying all manner of pills, herbs, exercises, therapies, considered and researched outdated ligation procedures, that there is a real cure, offered by dedicated and passionate professionals in an officially established and streamlined manner. It works for just about everyone, and most are happy with it. I feel it is the only way to truly not look back, as sclerotherapy would not relieve me of the anxious monitoring of my condition that has plagued me all of my life, even if there were improvements.