Is it possible I was injured during catheterization and this caused my Peyronie's disease?

Posted on February 24, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Hello, I developed curvature a few months after back surgery. Prior to the back surgery I had no urological problems. The night of my back surgery, I could not void and had to be catheterized. The nurse made several attempts with a disposable “cath” then opted for a foley. It took a couple of tries to get in but she was finally successful.

My question is if it is possible I was injured during my back surgery by improper positioning or is it more likely that the multiple attempts to “cath” me was the culprit or neither of these and Peyronie's disease was inevitable.

Greetings,

Of course, as the saying goes, “anything is possible.” You might have been made to lie face down in a strange position with your body weight resting squarely on your bent penis for a long time, resulting in tissue damage that developed into Peyronies. Could be, I suppose – but I rather doubt it.

It is also possible that you are genetically predisposed, and it was simply your time to develop Peyronie's disease without any obvious provocation at all. Perhaps you are taking a statin drug, a beta blocker or Propecia, and your current problem with a curved penis is just a drug reaction.

Given the story that you relate about the nurse struggling to insert the catheter up your urethra, based on the information you have related, in my opinion it is far more likely and reasonable that during your repeated catheterization attempts is when your actual injury took place that lead to your Peyronie's problem. For more information see Possible Peyronie's disease cause – Catheter and cystoscope trauma. In my work with the Peyronie's Disease Institute I speak and write to many men with some frequency who report the same kind of story with the same end result.

I suppose you could think back to the time when all of this was going on to remember if there were clues when the nurse was having a difficult time for clues to help you decide how it happened: if the nurse seemed to be rushing, if the nurse said something about pushing hard or jamming the tube up your urethra, or if it is now apparent somehow that direct force was being used. Anything like that would give support to the idea your urethra, corpora cavernosa and tunica albuginea were injured while all of these repeated attempts were being made.

Regardless of how it happened, the real pressing question is what are you going to do about the fact that you have Peyronies now? Many men have used the ideas and suggestions found on this PDI website to increase their natural ability to recover from Peyronie's disease. To learn more about how you might be able to eventually increase your ability to heal this problem, please go to recovery over Peyronie's disease.

If I can help you in any way, please let me know. TRH

I continued jelqing for months even though my penile curvature was getting worse and now I might have Peyronie's disease

Posted on February 24, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Dr. Herazy, Firstly, I would like to thank you and this community for even being here to help those who suffer with penile curvature. Finding information online regarding Peyronie's disease has been very tricky and even an anxious affair due to the condition's unnecessarily embarrassing nature. Anyway, a little background: I am a 23-year-old male who has had a healthy sex life for the last seven years. While dating my previous girlfriend, we had some bouts with sexual difficulty, mostly on her end due to numerous urinary tract infections and her mental condition; she has been on anti-anxiety and antidepressants for some years now. This made her very self-conscious during sex and, admittedly, other factors like privacy created tension. I have never experienced this before and thought something was wrong with me, and for some stupid reason, I wondered if my penis was somehow inadequate. So, I looked into enhancement options and discovered the murky world of jelqing and stretching.

I followed the exercise regiment very closely, with my workouts beginning in February of 2012 and ending at the end of October of 2012. I made sure to warm up every time with a hot wrap and never pushed myself too far, or so I thought. I discovered that my penis grew in length and girth, going from about 5.5 inches erect to 6.5 inches; flaccid, my penis has always been about one inch, no joke. Now, it is usually two but often three inches in length when totally flaccid. My ex at the time noticed it and was shocked I managed to change the size and shape of my penis. I was taking L-Arginine, L-Lysine, and Zinc on my workout days, including Pygeum Africanum, Lecithin, Flaxseed Oil, Fish Oil, Super B Complex, and a solid Multivitamin. But during the last week of October, after we had broken up, I think I went too hard and stretched too far, feeling an uneasy sensation in my penis. It's important to note that I had noticed the progression of a curve for months preceding this but with no pain. It is also important to note that I have always had a slight curve to the left, as several photos taken years ago prove.

Anyway, after this weird feeling from stretching, I finished my workout and decided to take some days off. But the pain got worse and I noticed a small bruise/discoloration and what appeared to be a reddish stretch mark running about two inches on my penis. So, I scheduled an appointment to see a urologist. I saw him and he said I essentially “sprained” something or caused a microtear near the glans of my penis. He told me to abstain from sexual activity for six to eight weeks. He didn't feel any plaque and said that he couldn't diagnosis Peyronie's because there wasn't significant curvature or plaque. While I didn't exactly abstain as much as I should have, I did mostly stop masturbating for weeks on end.

The pain is now completely gone but the discoloration and stretch mark (maybe inflamed vein) are still there, though they seem to have faded a bit. I am now living in Chicago and have scheduled an appointment with Dr. Levine for March 1st. I need some kind of closure on this; I need to know if I have to start treatment or maybe I just have a congenital curvature. The curve hasn't increased since my injury and, as stated above, I noticed the enhanced penile curvature while flaccid months before my injury. While erect, there's not much of a difference between the way my penis looks now and a few years ago when I was sixteen. The only difference is the discoloration/bruise, stretch mark/inflamed vein, and a bigger, more curved flaccid penis.

I am currently taking a Multivitamin, L-Arginine, CoQ-10, Acetyl L-Carnitine, and Vitamin E. I also was using Bio-Oil and Cocoa Butter, but have cut back significantly; I liked how smooth it made my unit feel. I have continued sexual activity with no pain and no loss of erectile function. Based on what you all know and what I have told you, can you point me in the right direction? Can you give me advice? My current girlfriend and ex have been very supportive through all of this, including my brother, best friend, and mother. I just want some kind of pointers and opinions; it can be quite suffocating with everyone telling you “you're going to be fine” or “you're overreacting.” This is a serious condition and I am not sure where to turn. Dr. Levine has me scheduled for an ultrasound the morning of our appointment so he can check it out before meeting with me. I seriously hope there is no scar tissue or, if there is, it is something I can deal with. I have grown fond of my curved flaccid penis and don't mind it; life is too short to dwell and panic about these things as long as I can have a functional sex life. Please. And thanks in advance for reading my story and any opinions. It means a lot!

Greetings,

Thank you for your detailed report and insightful commentary concerning your experience with jelqing and penis stretching.

In many posts I have written about the dangers of forced penis stretching: for example please see I think I have Peyronie’s disease from jelqing. What should I do? Too many men take a cavalier attitude about remodeling their penis to Adonis proportions. The websites that sell the books and tapes attempt to support the idea that all problems of low self-esteem and difficulty with female relationships will simply disappear with a sausage-like member tucked in below the belt. Life is perfect for men who have an unusually large penis. They do not discuss the many problems and tragedies that occur with these strategies of forced stretching. The jelqing websites try to create the idea that the penis can be squeezed and molded like a slab of clay can be tugged and strangled into an exaggerated size to please a lady or gratify a weak ego. When penis tissue is taken forcefully and repeatedly beyond a certain point of limitation it will suddenly fail.

At this point you can only be certain that you have a bruise or micro-tear of the external tissue of the shaft. You might be one of the luckiest guys in the world to only have a superficial injury, and not a deeper problem in the shaft at the level of the tunica albuginea; if it turns out that you have injured the tunica you are perhaps a step closer to having a case of Peyronie's disease. Even so, with injury to the tunica and an early case of Peyronies to deal with, about half of these cases repair or reverse on their own without outside intervention – spontaneous recovery is the medical term for self healing. This is mentioned so that you can appreciate the gravity of what you have done and the position you are in at the moment.

When you wrote that you “… never pushed myself too far, or so I thought,” you made a critical point about jelqing that gets to the heart of the craziness about this brutal practice. Did you ever watch a movie in which the bomb squad is called for help to defuse or take apart a complicated explosive device? The tension and drama of those scenes where the bomb wires are being cut is based on the person never knowing if he is cutting the correct wire or in the correct sequence until it is too late. The trick of taking apart the bomb is that you can be doing it correctly when everything is going well, until the moment you make a mistake and the bomb and you blow up. Jelqing is not much different. You can think you are doing it correctly and safely, until you make a mistake and injure your penis to cause a problem like Peyronie's disease. Who knows how far to go until after you have gone too far? Who knows how hard to squeeze and stretch, until after you have squeezed and stretched too much? Everything can go well until after everything does badly, when the whole jelqing idea blows up in your face.

Based upon what you have written, I suspect that you have injured yourself enough to have caused Peyronie's disease. I am lead to this conclusion by your statement, “… I had noticed the progression of a curve for months preceding this but with no pain. “ By this you say that for months your penis was becoming curved and yet you continued to jelq for months. Since I have not examined you I can only speculate, although you will learn in time if I am correct or not. I further suspect that you do not have at this time a curved penis when erect only because your condition is still too early and you are in the stage where the plaque has not yet formed the telltale Peyronie's scar that is far more capable of causing penile curvature. Further based upon what you have written, “While I didn't exactly abstain as much as I should have, I did mostly stop masturbating for weeks on end, ” even when the doctor told you to abstain from sexual activity you did not. Not only did you not stop having intercourse, you only reduced masturbating. You need to read a bit about the subject of hedonism.

If you do not develop Peyronie's disease as a result of your immaturity and lack of self-respect, and I hope you do not, it will be a miracle. Please try to use this experience as a way to learn something not only to learn about the dangers of jelqing and Peyronie's disease, but more so to learn about yourself and what aspects of your personality are in need of growth and maturity.

If it does turn out that you have an incipient case of Peyronie's disease, please consider that there is much you can do to assist your body to heal and repair the problem. If half of the men who develop Peyronie's disease eventually heal it on their own without assistance and their penile curvature goes away on its own, there is the possibility you can assist your recovery over Peyronie's disease by using information found on the PDI website.

Good luck to you, sir.

After my penis implant failed, will I ever be able to get an erection again and keep it?

Posted on February 21, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

I developed Peyronie's disease about 10 years ago. I guess there wasn't much treatment then because my doctor put me on vitamin E for a couple months ,but it didn't help. I had almost a 90 degree bend to the left and had torn tissue on the left side. He did surgery to correct it and he did a penis implant. As a result I lost about 50 to 60 percent of size. Now after about a year and a half to two years my implant no longer works, but I am still able to get a erection but have a problem keeping it for very long!! Now at best I can only get maybe half an erection, but can't keep it very long!! Is there any hope for me now and can anything be done to improve size now after all theses years. Will I be able to ever get a hard on again and keep it?

Greetings,

Any doctor who performs a penis implant surgery is supposed to completely and in great detail explain what he is going to do and tell you exactly what is going to happen as result of surgery: what you can expect in the near and distant future, your risks and rewards, as well well as your odds for partial and complete success, the pros and cons of that kind of surgery, and if the changes are permanent or reversible, and what it might take to reverse the surgery – all before actually doing the implant surgery. This is called informed consent; it means the surgeon must inform you of you everything you need to know in order to be able to make an intelligent decision about whether you want the surgery or not. I hope this was done for you.

I suggest that you contact that doctor who did your penile implant and tell him the problems you are having. Ask him those same questions you have asked me, and do not let him push you out of the office until you have a clear answer you can understand. Bring someone with you who you trust for this discussion. Tell the doctor that you want that person in the room to help you process the information he will give to you. Do not go into the room without that person with you because you need to have someone there to catch ideas and information you might miss. You have a right to this person being there so do not let anyone tell you that it cannot be done.

No matter what kind of answers or promises you get from this first surgeon who did the actual operation, then please, please, get a second opinion from another surgeon before you actually let anyone cut on you again.

You might want to read, Should my husband have a penile implant?

If you need further help, please let me know. TRH

Waiting for further information

Posted on February 21, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Hi Dr. Herazy, After talking to you on 6/3/11, I started treatment on April 15, 2011 with the medium treatment plan, I read your handbook and have done the external treatments with heat included 3 times a day ( I have followed the plan and all your methods faithfully including the diet plan and no cold drinks etc.(boy is that tough especially when it is triple digits are here in Casa Grande AZ and will be for the next 3 months. I have dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's but with little signs of progress, I'm trying not to get depressed since I only started on April 15th of 2011, Spend most of the day doing the program including Nel Gung and Kegel exercise. I do not do the message part

since I was not included in the medium package. Not sure if that part would be beneficial at this time. What would you suggest I do next to kick it up a notch. I already ordered another month of the medium package but maybe I should add Acety-l-carnitine or perhaps Neprinol to help expedite the process. I finally got the ability to have sex after changing diets two plus weeks later. I have no pain but everything is still status quo from the start as for the symptons go. Curviture is still there and hasn't lessened any. I have only one scar and had it about 10 months prior to starting the PDI program. FYI I also have dupuytrens tissue mass build up in my right hand and I am treating that with DusaSal.

Greetings,

There are several things that confuse me about your email, especially the dates. Would you please contact me by a direct email to me at herazy@comcast.net so I can understand what it is that you are saying. I want to help you as much as possible, but I first need to get these dates clear in my mind. After that I will be able to study your usage pattern to get an idea of how you are using your plan. Contact me soon, please. TRH

Where can I find a multi-tube VED to treat Peryronies disease?

Posted on February 21, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

I have been diagnosed with Peyronies disease. It came on very quickly.

I work as a consultant. I am 62 years old. Until recently I enjoyed a very energetic sex life. I began to notice around May of last year pain when I acquired an erection. My penis remained straight despite the pain. I was able to ejaculate and erection was not a problem.

I was on a job. My wife visited me mid October last year. Then she went home. I had two more weeks until the job ended. I decided to wait until I returned to California and give my penis a chance to heal. During first sex after two week layoff my penis was bent to the left. I was stunned. I can feel the hard areas along the left side of my penis. My urologist suggested vacuum therapy.

I bought a device with a large tube that still permits my penis to bend. I am an engineer. To me this is just teaching my penis to continue bending. Now I learn there is multi-tube device and suggested therapy.

Where is this mythical multi-tube device ?

Thanks,

John K.

Greetings John K,

I do not endorse the idea if using a vacuum erection device (VED). You can read this information in Peyronie's disease treatment with vacuum pump (VED).

Over the years I have encountered too many men who had negative experiences after using the VED, either causing injury that resulted in Peyronie's disease or they noted that the device simply made the penis larger than usual for a few minutes but did not help the actual problem of PD. The fundamental issue of Peyronie's disease is not the penile curvature weak or erections of Peyronie's disease that get your attention. The real problem of PD that causes all the other nasty problems that you are experiencing is due to the existence of the Peyronie's scar inside the shaft of the penis. Using a VED will not get rid of the Peyronie's scar; it will only stretch the tissue temporarily.

As an engineer I am sure you are familiar with the concept of trying to apply traction to a material that has rigid and less rigid areas; the traction force will be absorbed by the less rigid areas and will not allow the more rigid area to be stretched by the traction force. This is the fallacy of the VED concept to treat Peyronie's disease, as well as the mechanical penis stretcher or extender devices. This idea was discussed in some depth in a post I wrote called My Peyronie’s disease started after I tried to straighten my curved penis with a penis stretcher, should I use another one? I would appreciate a comment or two from you concerning the engineering and physics principles that are discussed in this post.

As far as where you can get a double-walled VED device, I can only suggest that you speak to a urologist who advocates the VED idea. The problem with the double-walled VED is that while it does not allow for the lateral bending of the distorted PD penis (which is good), it also does not allow for the expansion or stretching of the tissue (which is not good on one hand since this is supposed to be how this device is purported to help PD, but is good because it is less likely to injure the penis while it is being used).

Overall, it is my opinion the VED is not an effective therapy for Peyronie's disease. Note, that it is not only my idea that the VED is not a great Peyronie's therapy; many urologists are against their use for the same reasons I cite. Having said that, you will note that makers of the VED and those MDs who advocate the penis pump product for PD will point to a few positive published research reports for the VED. My answer to those positive VED research reports is the same concerning the thousands of positive research reports for hundreds of new drugs that come out annually. These hundreds of new drugs, because of the positive research behind them, receive FDA approval each year . And each year hundreds of them are taken off the market in a year or two after they are proven worthless or injure hundreds of people in the short time they are used. TRH

What plan do you recommend for someone with a 10 year-old case of Peyronie's disease?

Posted on February 21, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Hello Doctor,

I've had a mild curvature to the side, enough for me to be pretty self-conscious but not enough to interfere with intercourse, for about ten years. Extremely rarely does it cause mild pain.

I'm 30, in good health, I haven't used ED drugs, and I haven't tried PD treatment before. What plan do you recommend for someone like me who has had Peyronies for almost 10 years?

Also: Do the plans include instructions for maintenance therapy once the scar has faded?

Thank you.

Ron

Greetings Ron,

The problem with a Peyronie's disease situation like yours is one of instability and vulnerability to re-injury. I see it happen often: A man with a nuisance kind of problem he can live with will suddenly have an accident during sexual activity and make his PD worse. With even a minor curve the penis is more likely to suddenly bend while thrusting than a straight shaft. A curved penis , even when mild, is an accident waiting to happen; the problem is that you have no way to know when that accident might happen and how bad it can be. In my opinion the reason for you to do something about your PD is based more on prevention of this kind of problem, rather than being self-conscious.

Please go to Suggestions to help you decide how to start Peyronie's treatment. You will see a lot of help there for yourself and it will put things into perspective for you as you decide how you wish to proceed. Based on the protocol outlined in the chart I think the age of your condition supersedes the fact your problem presents with only a mild curve at this time.For this reason it would seem appropriate that you begin using a large level treatment plan for Peyronie's disease.

Complete instructions are included for the use of all therapies that are ordered. Some men follow a maintenance program and some do not; usually the maintenance program consists simply of a low dose of systemic enzymes.

Please let me know if I can help you in any way. TRH

Sex is better after PDI treatment, but still needs help to locate the Peyronie's scar

Posted on February 20, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Dr. Herazy,

I began using your small treatment plan about 4 weeks ago with what I feel have been very good results. My upward curvature was most extreme at the end of the penis, but still not very extreme based on what I've read on your site. When I first noticed the problem, the pain was terrible during intercourse but has gotten much less over the course of treatment. I want to thank you for your website as it gave me hope without a sense of over confidence about getting healed. I read both booklets and with some adjustments sex is back to being very, very good although there is still some dull pain.

My question is about locating the scar. While I can definitely tell where painful areas are when erect, it's difficult for me to locate exactly where the scar is when applying PMD. Do you have any suggestions on what it should feel like or will there be any noticeable areas on the skin? The only thing I can tell is that a good portion of the penis from head to about 3/4 of the way to the base is somewhat harder in the center (like along the urethra.)

Thank you again for your work, and any advice is appreciated.

Greetings,

Most men with Peyronie's disease need help to locate the Peyronies scar.

The painful areas you feel when erect might not exactly correlate to the location of the actual Peyronie's fibrous scar tissue. You do not want to be treating painful areas; you want to be treating where the scars are located and this will in turn reduce your pain and assist in your overall recovery.

It is a rarity to be able to see an elevated area of the skin that is caused by the internal Peyronie's scar tissue; for the most part, it is a waste of time trying to actually see the Peyronie's scar from the exterior. The best way to locate the scar material is when flaccid, meaning not erect.

Do not be discouraged if the scar you have is large since it does not seem that the size has much to do with difficulty or time required to eliminate it. Larger scars can take just as long as smaller scars to treat.

Try this: forget about finding a “scar.” Just try to find something – anything – within the mass of erectile tissue that feels unlike the other tissue. Find something that is unlike the rest of your penis. When you find it, mark its location with a marker pen or something that will stay on the tissue for a day or two. Go back each day to that area and re-think what you are feeling. You are trying to see if it becomes easier to make sense of it. It could be that you have an unreasonable expectation of what a “scar” should feel like, and you are missing what is really rather obvious only because your expectation is wrong. Really, how could you know what a PD scar feels like if you have never had to do this before? Trouble locating the scar is a common problem.

PDI has much success with the methods we present to you. Just because your doctor could not locate your scar does not mean it is not there. And it definitely does not mean that you cannot find it just because he can’t. As so many men with PD finally come to understand, you must take control of your situation and begin to get well on your own. A large part of being in control of your treatment is to have a vivid image of the scar physical qualities in your mind.

If you need additional help to locate the offending Peyronie's scar, please contact me directly. TRH

What program would you suggest I try for my four year-old Peyronie's disease?

Posted on February 20, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

I have had Peyronie's Disease for probably 4 years or so (not initially diagnosed) and the initial bend and associated pain is no longer apparent. I have several plaques on the shaft and these cause somewhat of an hourglass effect and an associated constriction.

I no doubt have suffered from depression during this period partly due to feelings of guilt and helplessness. I have taken l-carnatine and more recently Neprinol. I have found that if nothing else doses of vitamin E have also been good for my skin health.

More recently I have been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. I am in quite good health and have not experienced any loss of sexual function. In taking the Neprinol – this is probably of no association – I now wake with an erection.

I recognize that I should have acted earlier but as it took several attempts to find a doctor that could actually offer help I had already somewhat resigned myself to my fate. As described there has been substantial improvement from the original condition and I am looking to continue my recovery. What program would you suggest that I try? I look forward to receiving your advice.

Greetings,

As I suggest to all men who contact me with the same basic question about what program to get started with, I think you should visit the page Suggestions to help you decide how to start Peyronie's treatment. This is a good starting point for anyone who wishes to increase his ability to naturally heal and eliminate the offending Peyronie's scar tissue. The basic idea is to support and encourage the strongest healing response possible by using the largest and most aggressive plan you can use for at least 2-3 months.

It is encouraging to think that you saw some degree of improvement by just using acetyl-L-carnitine and Neprinol. This is not a good plan design, so if you decide to use what we offer as a viable treatment plan I would guess your results would be considerably better than what you did on your own.

Fifty percent of men who initially develop Peyronies will cure or eliminate it without any outside help. You saw what your body could do when you helped it a little in a lop-sided way. The PDI therapy idea is simply to encourage that natural healing ability by supplying at the same time and in an elevated dosage all possible nutritional elements to help that healing process along.

If I can help you in any way, please let me know. TRH

Does Bill Clinton have Peyronie’s disease or a curved penis?

Posted on February 13, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

Not every curved penis is Peyronie's disease

To offer a definitive and accurate answer to the question “Does Bill Clinton have a curved penis or Peyronie’s disease?” would require the presence of several pieces of clinical information determined by direct medical examination:

1. History of pain while erect, or less commonly pain while flaccid, or both
2. A mass or nodule of foreign scar tissue located below the surface of the penis shaft, detected by manual palpation or ultrasound examination
3. Structural deviation of the shaft of the penis during erection, (bending or curvature, hourglass, bottleneck, rotation or torque, or indentation deformity)
4. Erectile dysfunction, either total or partial, caused by the internal Peyronie’s scar material interfering with the pneumatic mechanism that creates a normal erection

Since none of the above information has been presented in any factual way, the curious public has only to rely on hearsay and innuendo. Taking the sketchy information and various unconfirmed newspaper reports as credible, the only safe conclusion at this time is that former President Clinton does not have Peyronie’s disease.

A diagnosis of Peyronie’s disease can be complicated. Peyronie’s disease is not determined solely on the presence of a curved penis, any more than the absence of penile curvature indicates a man does not have Peyronie’s disease. Simply because a penis is curved does not support the conclusion that the cause is Peyronie’s disease, especially when the presence of the curvature is solely based on the observation of a layperson.

However, whether Mr. Clinton has Peyronie’s disease, or even a curved penis, cannot be confirmed in any meaningful way at this time due to the legal maneuvering and sealing of many court documents in which this question has been apparently asked and answered under oath. As such, the presence or absence of a curve in Mr. Clinton’s penis is apparently known, but is not currently available for the public record.

Whether or not Bill Clinton, the 42^nd U.S. president, does or does not have a bent penis, and is consequently assumed to have Peyronie’s disease, became an important political question during two different sex scandals in which President Clinton was famously involved.

The first, in 1994, centered on the sexual harassment suit that Paula Jones filed against President Clinton for conduct that was said to have occurred in 1991 at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock Arkansas. Her lawsuit was eventually dismissed on the grounds that she failed to prove damages as a result of her encounter with Clinton. When Jones appealed the dismissal Clinton agreed to a $850,000 out-of-court settlement.

The second, in 1998, became known as the Lewinsky scandal. This high profile sex scandal centered on the extra-marital affair between President Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Eventually the scandal resulted in the impeachment of President Clinton by the U.S. House of Representatives and a subsequent acquittal on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. Senate after a stormy 21-day trial.

Both of these women hoped to prove that Mr. Clinton was sexually active in their presence by offering that they saw a “distinguishing characteristic” of his private anatomy, suggested by others to be some degree of penile curvature.

However, the public record regarding Mr. Clinton’s alleged bent penis has been purged from their testimony. Because the Jones and Lewinsky cases involved a sitting U. S. president, all testimony and affidavits that would quickly answer this question about Peyronie’s disease were sealed by court order and remain so. Detailed review of Monica Lewinsky’s August 6^th and August 20^th grand jury testimony, released on September 21, 1998 reveals no questions asked or answered about his penis. Detailed review of Paula Jones’ testimony during her deposition to the U. S. Senate on February 17, 1998 also reveals no questions asked or answered Mr. Clinton’s penis.

As a result of the court enforced silence on this subject the public does not know what these two women said about what they saw. The Washington Times has reported that several sources with close ties to the Paula Jones case indicated that in her sworn affidavit she alleges Mr. Clinton’s displayed a distinctly angled bend of his erect penis.

Even if it was widely known that both women said Mr. Clinton has a bent penis, this isolated information does not definitely prove that the former president has Peyronie’s disease; it would only mean that his penis is curved.

However, the New York Times newspaper has reported that on October 3, 1998 a detailed genital examination was conducted on Mr. Clinton by the chief of urology from the National Naval Medical Center, Capt. Kevin O'Connell whose interest was to specifically rule out Peyronie's disease. The New York Times has reported that Dr. O’Connell, as a result of this examination would testify if given the opportunity, that Mr. Clinton does not suffer from Peyronie’s disease. But this information is also under a court seal, so the best that can be done currently is to speculate.

Some normal penises are curved while other normal penises are straight; just part of the normal variation that exists between men that makes us all unique. When those court documents are finally opened and made public, few of us will be around to care about the private parts of President Clinton.

Do you know of any link between Peyronie's disease and PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen)?

Posted on February 7, 2013July 21, 2015 by Dr.Herazy

My question is, do you know of any link between Peyronie's disease and PSA?

Since I acquired Peyronies, my PSA has increased over a couple of years.

Dave

Greetings Dave,

In my opinion there is a possible link between an elevated PSA test and Peyronie's disease, actually two links, but only in an indirect way and probably not as you might expect. I will discuss that association a bit later after a few preliminary remarks so all readers can be more familiar with the PSA test.

Every man needs to know that PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is a protein made by normal prostate gland tissue in the adult male. A recent ejaculation, any inflammation of the prostate whether caused by acute injury, benign (non-cancerous) enlargement (BPH or benign prostatic hyperplasia) associated with aging, or prostate cancer can elevate the PSA level found in the blood.

In the mid-80s the PSA test was approved by the FDA only to monitor the progression of prostate cancer that was previously diagnosed. In the mid-90s the PSA test was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in conjunction with a direct digital rectal examination (DRE) to annually test men who did not have active prostate symptoms as a screening procedure for prostate cancer.

However, due to recently becoming aware of the limitations of the PSA test and the potential harm that can arise with its use, it the FDA acknowledges the PSA test is not a dependable prostate cancer screening procedure; it yields a false-positive result in about 75% of positive tests (only one correct test result out of four positive tests) . This means that three men who do not have prostate cancer will receive an incorrect test result for every four positive tests. Prostate biopsy operations are performed on a routine basis when a PSA test is positive, so this means that three out of four prostate biopsies are unnecessary and expose those men to unnecessary risks and side effects.

On the other side of the coin, a false-negative PSA test can also come back with a low or normal readying even thought active prostate cancer is present. This does not happen nearly as often as a false-positive PSA test, but it does occur, giving a man and his doctor, as well as his family, a false sense of security that cancer is not present when in fact he might have prostate cancer that requires immediate treatment.

As a cancer screening test the PSA, when it is actually correct, can help detect the presence of small cancers that do not cause symptoms. However, simply locating a small prostate cancer does not result in a man living longer. Several types of prostate cancer detected by PSA testing grow so slowly they are unlikely to be a cause of death. Further, detecting cancer early might not help a man survive a fast-growing or aggressive tumor that often spreads to other tissues and parts of the body long before it is detected. For this reason the FDA now takes a different position about the PSA detecting prostate tumors: early detection of slow growing and non-malignant prostate tumors that do not threaten a man’s life can result in “overtreatment” of low-threat problems, and this routine screening use of the PSA test has been called “overdiagnosis.”

Active and aggressive treatment of a low threat and slow growing prostate cancer is called overtreatment because the side effects and complications that arise from this kind of cancer treatment are often far worse and more life threatening than the cancer itself. Beginning with suppression or weakening of the immune system that makes a man more susceptible to infection anywhere in the body and other diseases, urinary incontinence (inability to control urine flow), bowel and urinary dysfunction and erectile dysfunction are a common side effect of cancer treatment.

More commonly now only those men who report actual prostate symptoms will be given a PSA test along with a digital prostate examination to determine the cause of their symptoms. The exception to this more limited use of the PSA test is for those men who are who are at greater risk of malignant prostate cancer (black men or those men whose father or brother had prostate cancer). For this group it is recommended that they begin to screen for prostate cancer in their mid-40s.

For these men in a high risk group, PSA testing spread out over a period of several years rather than several months gives the most accurate and revealing diagnostic information. One individual elevated PSA test may be a reason for only mild concern, because often the next PSA test will be normal. But a series of slowly raising PSA tests over a period of a few years is another matter and warrants further prostate testing.

PSA testing is also controversial for men 75 years old and above. This age group is far more likely to have a slow growing cancer. This type of cancer posses very little immediate health risk compared to the other cancers, heart, lung and kidney diseases, diabetes, degenerative neurological and vascular disease (that often occur as multiple health problems) in the elderly. For this reason PSA screening is not recommended for elderly men with multiple health problems or a single major medical problem, or when life expectancy is less than 10 years.

So now, Dave, with all that on the table, allow me to offer my thoughts about a possible connection between Peyronie's disease and the PSA test.

When a man has a PSA test and the results come back positive, the doctor treating doctor will do additional tests that will probably include a prostate biopsy. After the prostate biopsy the man might be catheterized (a thin catheter tube inserted up his urethra – the urinary passage in the penis) to help him void urine. I have written in the past about the issue of abusive catheterization leading to PD in Possible Peyronie's cause: Catheter and cystoscope trauma. In this sense, men who have had a PSA test can develop Peyronie's disease indirectly as part of the process of having their prostate gland treated.

As a second possible link of PSA tests and Peyronie's disease, please consider the man who goes to his medical doctor for symptoms of prostate enlargement (urinary frequency, urinary dribbling, difficulty starting or stopping the flow urine or pelvic and penis pain). As these things often progress, this man could be given a PSA test to assess the condition of the prostate and subsequently be prescribed the drug Proscar (finasteride) to reduce prostate enlargement (benign prostate hyperplasia – BPH). There are a growing number of lawsuits now pending which claim that Proscar can cause Peyronie's disease; for additional information please see Will the drug finasteride (Proscar) (Propecia) affect my Peyronie's disease in any way?

I would be interested to learn more about your situation, Dave. In particular, if you have ever taken Proscar in relation to prostate enlargement; and if have, if your Proscar was taken before you knew you had PD. Now that you have Peyronie's disease I believe there is no direct connection between your prostate gland or Peyronie's disease and the raising pattern of your PSA readings.

For additional information please see Prostate screening and Peyronie's disease. TRH