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

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.

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Good luck to you, sir.

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I think I have Peyronie’s disease from jelqing. What should I do?

Dr. Herazy,

My name is DJ and I am positive I have Peyronie’s disease. I have always had a slight curve downward and to the left but very slight. I did some jelqing to try to fix this on and off over the last two years. This was a terrible mistake as I was not careful and did it too hard. It ended up giving myself Peyronies and now my curve is much worse. I noticed big changes about 4 months ago where I started to get pain and the curve was getting worse. Now my curve is probably about 50 degrees to the left and downward. It is very painful and I every day I can feel the scar tissue on the bottom of my penis get harder.

This is destroying my life and as many people with this disease, I feel hopeless. I have been taking vitamin E for about a month as well as rubbing vitamin E oil on the scars but this has not done anything. I have decided that I need to take action immediately to stop this from getting worse. What do you suggest? Should I get your large plan and start doing that? I would greatly appreciate some suggestions as I am overwhelmed and do not know what I should do.

Thanks

 

Greetings DJ,

The first thing I suggest is that you have a urologist examine your problem to verify what you suspect about this being Peyronie’s disease.  However, it is possible that by excessive jelqing you only traumatized the blood vessels of your penis shaft and it is not PD. Based on the information your provided it does make sense that your problem is Peyronie’s disease, but you should really get this examination done anyway so there is no doubt about it.

By no means are you alone. About once or twice a month I hear from someone who caused his Peyronie’s disease by jelqing.  By its very nature when a man does jelqing he will create an excessive and often brutal amount of internal pressure within the penile shaft that it is not built to take. For this reason when you jelq you take the risk that you can easily injure the delicate deep tissue layers of the penis, especially when repeated over a two year span of time as you did.

Using a large PDI treatment plan is a good idea in a situation like this.  The more aggressive and faithful your effort to support positive tissue changes the more likely you will be able to naturally reduce the Peyronie’s plaque that may be present.  I always suggest that anyone thinking about using a PDI treatment plan should first read my book “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook” because there is a lot of good self-help treatment information that is not found anywhere else.

How does jelqing work on Peyronies disease plaque?

How does jelqing exercise work on peyronies disease plaque?  Does this exercise soften the plaque or harden it?

Greetings,

Jelqing can injure the penis because it is not so much an exercise, but a series of aggressive penis stretching and maneuvers that force blood under great pressure into penile tissue.  It cannot soften the Peyronies disease plaque, but can easily cause more plaque to develop because the tremendous squeezing and stretching force that are required in jelqing will literally tear the internal tissue of the penis like the delicate tunica albuginea.  This repeated and forceful stretching of tissue by jelqing goes beyond the normal tissue limit and causes the delicate tissues to become damaged far more than it causes it to actually stretch.

Overall, jelqing is a bad idea because it is dangerous.   The trauma to the delicate tunica of the penis caused by jelqing is probably enough in some men to start the injury that results in the excessive scarring that is known as Peyronie's disease.  Over the years I have spoken to many men who are convinced their Peyronie's disease started after just one session of jelqing.

One of the most common reasons that men say they do jelqing when they have Peyronies disease – besides their effort to enlarge the penis – is to increase the blood circulation.   Do you jelq your hands if they are cold, trying to make more blood to enter?  Do you jelq your arms too?  How about jelqing your feet when they do not have enough blood.  No, no one does that.   The body does not need to be jelqed to increase circulation.  Before touching your penis to jelq it, is it cold, is it blue?  No.   Then the circulation going into the penis is not the problem in Peyronies disease.   The problem is that the blood is not being trapped by the corporal veins to create the greater fluid pressure that results in an erection.  The problem of a weak erection in Peyronie's disease is caused by veins that do not trap blood and this happens because of the presence of the Peyronies plaque.   That is where you need to concentrate your effort.   You need to improve the ability of your veins to close by eliminating the PD scar or plaque.   Jelqing does not do this – and probably injures that ability since you are using such great forces that the valves can be damaged.  Proceed at your own risk.