Dr. Herazy,
I spoke with you on the phone this evening, Friday May 11th. I sincerely thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Much appreciated. I will be ordering your book as my first step.
If I operate under the assumption that my situation is in fact Peyronie's disease, it would be safe to assume since my symptoms of curvature and pain started about a month ago that I am in the initial stages of the syndrome. I have two questions for you:
1. Is it beneficial to achieve erection and masturbate in this stage? My thought is that this may have some benefit in protecting from scarring, similar to prescribed rehab after a knee surgery. In that example the patient manipulates the joint frequently to break up formed and forming scar tissue. Would this be useful?
2. Do you recommend or discourage the use of Viagra and the other similar drugs in this period? Could they help or hurt healing?
Thanks again for your time. I will keep you posted!
R. Brown
Greetings R.
As you recall, I mentioned that there are often many irregularities and inconsistencies in the way Peyronies disease will present itself; it is rare to find someone with a classic text book presentation. Since your particular symptoms and history does not strongly suggest that you have PD, and only a few a small part that does, I suggest you consult with a second urologist to confirm one way or the other your actual diagnosis.
That masturbation might be beneficial for Peyronies' disease because exercise of joint after surgery is a standard therapy, is a flawed comparison. What you are proposing would not be much different than watching movies after eye surgery, smelling flowers after nose surgery or listening to music after ear surgery. In Peyronie's disease the lesion or problematic tissue is relatively passive or non-functional relative to sexual activity. Even though it is obviously the primary structure that is involved in sexual activity and it certainly gets involved, in my opinion there is limited and minimal direct therapeutic benefit to masturbation for Peyronie's disease. Having said that I think there is considerable secondary or indirect benefit. Masturbation is helpful not only from an emotional basis, but also due to the increased blood circulation that occurs during any type of sexual activity. I doubt that frequent or occasional masturbation would make a great difference to your eventual recovery, one way or the other, but if it feels good and it benefits you even a small amount then that is probably reason enough to do it.
While exercise to rehabilitate a damaged joint and weak muscles are obviously appropriate and necessary therapy for a bony articulation that is meant to move and muscles that are meant to contract, none of this applies to the corpora cavernosa, corpora spongiosum or tunica albuginea of the penile shaft.
If I have not stated the point clearly enough, allow me another round at it. While there might be small and indirect benefit to masturbation if you have any stage of Peyronie's disease, I am sure the direct therapeutic benefit is only minimal. I get the sense from your question that you had the idea you could "masturbate your way out of PD." To the extent this is what you had hoped, the answer is no.
All sexual activity, especially masturbation, for a man with Peyronie's disease should be gentle, easy and non-traumatic in every way possible. A critical part of being as gentle and easy on yourself is to use an above average amount of personal lubrication to avoid abuse to the involved tissue. Easy does it. If it hurts, even a little, stop doing and never repeat whatever does not feel pleasant to you. One of the worse things you can do for yourself would be to reduce or alter your usual and customary sexual activity simply because you have Peyronie's disease. Many men do this, and it sets up an attitude of defeat and hopelessness that is not beneficial for eventual recover. Go at it, sir, but be careful.
I can tell you a long list of sad stories related to me by teenage boys who developed Peyronies after injuring themselves while using rough and exotic masturbation practices; more 14 and 15 year old virgin boys than you would imagine, who will never have intercourse in their lives if they follow the standard medical advice of "do nothing until I say it is time for Peyronie's surgery."
I have written extensively about the frequent situations in which the use of the PDE5 inhibitor drugs (Viagra, Cialis, Levitra) can precipitate injury to the delicate tunica albuginea of the shaft and lead to Peyronie's disease. You can search the archives for these articles, but a few are "Peyronie's disease plaque, Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and blood supply" and "Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra use with Peyronie's disease," and" Viagra Peyronie's disease connection."
Please let me know if I can help you in any other way. TRH
I would like you to read about the use of Cialis and it’s benefits to Peyronie’s disease.
Currently when I read your answers and data it disappoints me because I am just in the first stages of Peyronie’s disease but trying Tadalafil 5 milligrams daily to treat it.
Pentoxifiline, Vitamin E, Acetyl Carnitine, and Vitamin C.
I’am in a situation where my problem is acute and doesn’t affect my sexual development, but I’ve lost length and girth… thankfully god provided me enough that is not noticeable by my wife.
I’am in a point where you read so much and so many people has something to say about this but no one seems to have the cure.
Like you and your page. I just see a business going on with no actual percentages of effectiveness of your treatment or study made.
I can say I can cure anything and just run a business go sell pills.
Good job!!
I will love to be a customer but there is no data to support you.
HA
Greetings HA,
Thanks for your comments and viewpoint after reading this one page on our Peyronie’s disease website. I think fundamentally your critical disposition and negative viewpoint arises because you have not spent enough time reading more about what the Peyronie’s Disease Institute has done, what it accomplishes through its research, and the stats we report through use of our protocol. You cannot appreciate the whole concept and all the information available in just a few Q/A pages; all this information is spread out over our huge website. I simply do not have a lot of time available to fully answer all your interesting observations as I would like to do; to answer with the detailed reply I would like to give would take all day. instead, I will briefly answer the several points you raised and hope it gives the Peyronie’s disease information you seek.
1. Cialis – I will not add much to the ideas about Cialis (tadalafil) beyond what I have written in this commentary, except that I receive several emails and phone calls weekly from men who tell me their Peyronie’s disease started or was made worse by the use of Cialis, Viagra or Levitra (all PDE5 inhibitors). If you Google the subject you will find hundreds, maybe thousands, of reports and stories from men whose Peyronie’s disease started or was made worse after using Cialis, Levitra or Viagra.
Drug companies can legally sell drugs that have side effects, if the drugs produce a certain tolerable number or percent of problems while also producing some other desirable effect. The idea is that the good the drugs do is greater than the bad they do. That is all well and good except for the people who develop those side effects, like Peyronie’s disease. The literature from the drug companies that produce Cialis, Viagra or Levitra warns men that these drugs should not be used if you have Peyronie’s disease. What else can I say? Since this website is all about the reduction of Peyronie’s disease, any PDE5 drug that causes or worsens Peyronie’s disease is not considered acceptable. Use them at your own risk.
2. Your current penis distortion – You mention you are in the acute or early stages of Peyronie’s disease, and that you believe your wife is not aware of the loss of length and girth you have noticed.
Perhaps that small reduction of size is all the distortion that will occur with your Peyronie’s disease, since it seems all cases of PD are slightly different in some way. Most men with Peyronie’s disease have significant and easily noticed distortions. Penis curvature is common and quite variable in Peyronie’s disease. The physical distortion can range from a slight banana deformity that does not interfere with sexual entry, and can enhance and benefit sexual pleasure for some women, to so severe that penetration is impossible. (I have communicated with men whose bent penis was at a 105 degree bend.) At least 25% of men I communicate with tell me they have a bottle neck, or hourglass, or multiple indentation deformity constantly or frequently when erect. The great majority of PD cases cannot be hidden; they are that obvious. I can only hope that you will be the exception.
I suggest that you talk to your wife about Peyronie’s disease and tell her what is going on with you; more than likely you will not be able to keep this from her anyway. She will appreciate the information and the fact that you are including her in your problem. The loss of sexual intimacy can be devastating even to a committed couple; it can be a real test of a marriage. My experience shows that couples who are dealing with Peyronie’s disease get into trouble because the women feels are shut out and excluded through the man’s embarrassment, shame and humiliation, and less so by the woman’s outright sexual rejection. Talking to your wife about Peyronie’s disease is one of the best things I know to do to keep you two close together and work through whatever difficulties are ahead.
3. Peyronie’s cure and effectiveness – Nowhere does PDI claim to have a cure for Peyronie’s disease. We are in the process of learning the best way to help the body heal Peyronie’s disease using natural Alt Med products. I have done this work since 2002 after my own Peyronie’s disease went away after using Alt Med, and a lot of other men have had success as well – from minor to major improvements. There are still too many open questions how this process works or if it is possible to streamline the procedures in some way, and this is what PDI is investigating now. Throughout this website you can read about how PDI has done five different research projects related to Alt Med ideas, using volunteers via long distance. This is not the kind of research work the medical establishment approves of. They want tightly controlled multi-million dollar research that only drug companies and universities can perform, not the humble effort we are doing. But, personally, I am only concerned about seeing if there is anything I can do to help guys with Peyronie’s disease get over their problems; formal research can come later. Those men who no longer are dealing with the misery of Peyronie’s disease are happy I have taken this position.
Currently we advocate a generalized self-treatment approach using a combination of several internal and external Alt Med therapy items, while asking our men to monitor the judge physical response of the Peyronie’s disease fibrous material to see what dosage levels and combinations the body requires in each case to reduce the size, shape, density and surface features of the PD scar tissue. Most of the therapies we use have been subjected to formal medical research as solo therapy items in published medical research (vitamin E, vitamin C, L-arginine, PABA, acetyl-L-carnitine, coenzyme Q10, etc.) and earned mixed to poor results when used as individual therapy items. This means that medical research has tested vitamin E by itself to see if vitamin E reduces Peyronie’s disease; acetyl-L-carnitine has been researched by itself to see if it reduces Peyronie’s disease, etc. This is how medical research is done. They try to determine if there is a vitamin that has a drug-like effect on the PD scar tissue; and of course the answer is “no.” Vitamins are not drugs and do not work as forcefully or dependably as drugs do; they work with the various processes of the body to help the body heal if it is possible. The difference with what PDI is doing is that we never use these Alt Med therapy items as solo or isolated therapy items, like they are drugs. The current Alt Med approach is that we use them in large combinations so that they are presented into the body in a more natural way as nutrients are commonly taken into the body. The intent is that the body will be helped with this boost of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that the medical profession has speculated are important to the healing of Peyronie’s disease.
We are doing work to learn more about how each person responds to individualized treatment based on self-monitored changes in the size, shape, density and surface features of the Peyronie’s disease scars.
For the most part, this work is done on a one-on-one basis with volunteer subjects only who self-monitor and self-treat; I offer information and suggestions as their self-treatment progresses when they ask for my opinion. Many different levels of volunteer involvement, compliance and tenacity are encountered; some are early stage of Peyronie’s disease, some are in a chronic stage, some are pre-surgical, some are post-surgical, some have minor penis distortion while others have major distortion; some people are dedicated, precise and rigorous in their approach to self-treatment while others are less so. Each person modifies his treatment plan not only at the start of care but also as care progresses, so that no one follows a consistent or universal regimen of care. With as much variation of subject population and treatment procedures I encounter, our current research format is not appropriate for the creation of meaningful statistics. The information I receive from each person I am unable to personally verify. All of this is contrary to established ideas of medical research, but it is the best we can do at this time.
So far the treatment concept is working fairly well in a good number of cases. When men use this assortment of combined nutrients that the medical profession has speculated are important to the healing of Peyronie’s disease, the results are much better than when they are used singly or as isolated therapy items. PDI gets 8-10 reports of success (from minor to major improvement) from men who follow the PDI concepts for every one report of failure. This is an important statement about PDI results and effectiveness you mentioned.
4. No data to support you – PDI cannot conduct controlled studies as would a drug manufacturer or university providing a controlled environment that lends itself to the creation of hard statistics as you are probably looking for. The medical profession is not interested in what PDI is doing with Alt Med for Peronie’s disease.
There is no way a small group such as the Peyronie’s Disease Institute can do formal drug company-level research, or produce specific detailed reports such as you might be looking for; PDI is way too small to match multi-billion dollar research that would produce data the medical community is interested in. PDI must rely on the voluntary and individual reports of men who have used our ideas, so the information is not acceptable to the medical establishment. If it is formal research, detailed columns of decimal points and longwinded discussions you seek, then you must look to the medical community and drug companies for the use of drugs and surgery.
5. Running a business to sell pills – PDI did not start out to sell pills or anything else. We began to tell men about Peyronie’s disease treatment with Alt Med so they could do it for themselves, without drugs. After a short while it was apparent we had to sell these products because we found men were consistently not getting the right kind of therapy products without our help; no one was doing it the right way, using only good quality products.
In the early phase of our work, when men tried the PDI approach they did not get the kind of results we were getting. We found that most men were going to K-Mart, online vitamin merchants, or anywhere else they could find inexpensive products that were similar to the products we were using – the cheaper the better. We found that for the most part these men were using inferior and questionable quality vitamin, mineral and enzyme products that did not match the products we used. It became apparent that in order to promote this idea of Alt Med treatment of Peyronie’s disease it was necessary to supply the exact products we used to get our results.
Because we do sell the products we talk about, men are benefitted to have an easy one-stop shop to get the right products at a good price. This allows PDI with a small source of income to support our ongoing research projects related to Peyronie’s disease. Look at the size of this website. Consider the time and effort that was put out to answer your one question. All of this was made available because we sell the therapy items you need.
Good luck with your Peronie’s disease. TRH