Is erectile dysfunction really the biggest problem? Rate your erections

General Discussion
#1

How would you rate you erections from 1: non existent 10: pre-pfs

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0 voters

Im curious because for me this has long since ceased to be the main problem, i am suffering more from the physical effects, the fallout from the crash and the first few months i guess, bit of gyno, hyperthyroidism, adrenal problems, muscle loss that kind of thing, but as far as erections, well lets just say that i’ve had a girlfriend since may and never once failed to get it up, im confused by this as it’s evident from other areas that my ratios are still not right. Anyway please vote and leave a comment too if you want.

#2

Do you have any shrinkage cando?

#3

Sometimes i can achieve rock hard erections but sex isn’t all about getting hard. I would say that having low sexual desire is the big issue, as well as severe shrinkage and changes to the penile skin.

#4

Where is the “zero” option on the survey?

And to clarify, when people are talking about erections, I’m assuming they’re referring to medicine-free, hand-free normal male arousal.

From talking to some folks, I get the impression that our standards are going down…

I don’t count having to constantly stroke your dick to keep it up 75% or injecting yourself or taking Viagra as having erections.

#5

Yeah, this is something I’ve noticed too and have been thinking about more recently. I think the sexual dysfuntion is one particular system thats effected, than a different system is responsible for things like penile shrinkage, numbness, other physical problems, etc.

#6

i have no Ed at all. i can get erections spontanous and most mornings. however my penis is totally numb so its of no use. personally i think the numbness is the worst thing. why dont you take a pill abd just enjoy your life if ed is the main issue for you.

#7

Because with a pill, we’re in the same boat as you. We might be able to get an erection, but don’t feel it. You can at least fake it with a girl, those of us with serious E.D. and libido issues have enormous trepidation at even approaching a girl, never mind initiating sex, even with the assistance of PDE5Is (whose efficacy has faded), and never mind the lack of sensitivity and dulled overall sensation and pleasure. We’re several steps back from you, bud. Enjoy what you have is all I can say. If it were a mere mechanical matter and I didn’t have fatigue/libido/arousal/sensory issues, I could get a penis implant and be done with it. Alas, that’s not the case, it’s not so “simple”…

#8

i didnt relise you had sensativity issues to. i thaught u just had ED. i have no desire, no libido, nothing turns me on and no pleasure in the liwer region but i do get erections.

Do u have any dreams at nite?
i didnt for about 14 months. they have now returned and with it morning erections. not sexual dreams just dreams. think there is a connection

#9

Deep REM sleep comes and goes. Certainly, the deeper the sleep, the better the body heals, regenerates, etc. And with that come dreams and sexual dreams. That all fluctuates for me.

Yeah, we might be able to come up with an E.D./sensitivity/arousal/ scale and graphic similar to the Viagra hardness model that you see in urologists offices. We could say “I’m a stage 5” and better understand our symptoms.

Quick Brainstorm/Example:
Stage 1: Erections and libido (other symptoms)
Stage 2: Erections but no libido; sensitivity Issues
Stage 3: Slight E.D. (erratic performance) but libido
Stage 4: Slight E.D. but no libido, sensitivity Issues
Stage 5: No Erections, no libido, sensitivity issues

Now, there are other parts of the progressive downfall that I’ve left out, perhaps connecting stages, like loss of morning erections, but this is a simple representation.

Where PFS becomes really scary is with the whole brain-penis disconnect. Initially, taking Cialis made me feel normal. I got that satisfying warm rush of blood flow to the penis. It’s when you cannot feel that, even with the use of drugs or injections, that you realize that something is awfully wrong.

#10

erectile dysfunction is by far the worst problem for me, i have also penile shrinkage, penile fibrosis and sometimes a faint lack of libido, but the worst problem is with no doubts erectile dysfunction.

#11

because cialis even at the highest dosage didin’t work on me or it worked very faintly.

#12

sex is a luxury for me. My main concern is my health, muscle loss, lack of energy etc. I recently got a little better and got some muscles but I am almost 100% impotent. Severe shrinkage in my junk. There was a time when before going out I used to seat my junk properly and make sure it is not visible in my pants. After sitting on any place I used to go to washroom to again align every thing but now it looks like I have nothing down there, just like ladies.

#13

Bryce, i 100% don’t believe the 2 issues are separate. I had a 100% recovery with tamoxifen which resulted in me having: rock hard erections, a very heightened arousal mechanism and reversing of genital tissue changes and shrinkage; which co-incided with me having all my energy back, no brain fog, no depression and a general thirst for life. I was like this for 3 weeks and then i crashed again which resulted in me having: 50% of my normal erection power, worsening of arousal mechanism as well the return to a lesser extent of penile and scrotum softening and shrinkage; this co-inciding with the return of fatigue and depression. What i am saying in essence is: all my symptoms (physical, sexual and mental) changed in parallel with the state of my erections. Before my recovery, i had no erections, severe shrinkage, severe mental sides, severe physical sides etc. etc. I am convinced that once you get your full sexual functioning back, the physical and mental symptoms will clear almost instantaneously. This is what happened to me.

#14

hmm, yeah that’s pretty interesting. i agree with you… with the right treatment, all systems are affected and cleared up. but the main reason behind this thinking is because not all people have all the exact same symptoms. like, some people will get numbness but are able to get erections. or some people get something, and other things don’t happen.

based on what you said, maybe it should be like… whatever the main cuase of PFS is… some people have it to a higher degree or a more extreme degree than others, causing more intense effects? merck really effed us with this drug…

#15

Hi Bryce, i have’t really thought of PFS sufferer as each having separate symptoms. I’ve just been thinking that one thing went wrong when we quit the drug and we are all left with physical, mental and sexual symptoms of it.

I am completely confused when people are saying they have numbness but rock hard erections. If i am honest, i start to question whether people have PFS when i here this and how accurate they are in describing their symptoms, especially when compared to the average normal person. This is aimed at no one in particular and we have to remember we can’t confidently say we are right or wrong when we comment on PPS - we are all basically amateurs in this respect. This is just my informed opinion based on my experience and the info available.

Simplifying my experience: i had bad sides across all spectrum; i took tamoxifen, and had no sides; i crashed again and all my sides seem pretty much half way between the two extremes. For example, i now have mediocre erections and mediocre numbness. If the problem is AR gene based and we have these all over our body (?) and they are downregulated/ methylated when DHT returns to our body (?) maybe we have these receptors ‘switched off’ to varying degrees when we crash.

For example, maybe 90% of my AR genes were switched off when i crashed but you had only 50% switched off. Then i took tamoxifen, all my AR genes were ‘switched on’ again (as tamoxifen blocks estrogen activity, thus increasing androgen signals - again, i’m not 100% sure on this) and i was cured. My recovery with tamoxifen wasn’t gradual is was pretty much straight after taking my first tablet. It had nothing to do with increasing my testosterone levels i don’t think. Then i crashed again, but only 50% of my AR genes were ‘switched off’ this time. But although we both have 50% of our AR genes active overall, 70% of the AR genes on my penis are switched on but only 30% of your are. I would still expect us all however to have bad sexual sides across the sexual side spectrum or limited sexual sides across the spectrum. If the AR gene is in our genitals, i can’t see how you could have great erections but bad numbness and shrinkage. You either have bad erections, numbness, libido and shrinkage or you don’t or it is somewhere in the middle but always similar functioning across the spectrum of sexual sides relative to each other.

I’m sure i’ve read on here you get different AR genes eg: AR1 is on the genitals (controlling sexual sides?) and AR2 is on the skin on our body (controlling weight, skin complexion, vitality, fatigue?). In terms of the mentals sides (depression, fatigue?), maybe that is all neuro- transmitter based and these are somehow linked to the AR gene signals being switched on or off. Maybe they are all linked and they all feed off each other’ signals like a chain?

I actually felt the best i have ever felt in my life during my 3 week recovery, which made me think was some off my AR genes switched off before finasteride use. I was an accutane user when i was 13/14 and had some problems sometime with erectile dysfunction anyway when growing up. During my recovery, my erections were incredible and the slightest sexual thought gave me a huge erection and the urge to go and shag the next thing that moved. I was incredibly horny

This is all about trying to make an informed guess at this moment in time, but it seems plausible to me. I think it is pretty heavy shit we are trying to grasp here, it’s not mickey mouse, that’s for sure.