Peyronie’s treatment using erection producing drugs
The erectile dysfunction and soft erections associated with Peyronie’s disease are sometimes treated with Viagra, an erection causing drug made by the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company. The information about Viagra duplicated in this blog post is written by Pfizer about Viagra, in relation to Peyronie’s disease. The basic information presented by Pfizer is essentially true for other erection producing drugs, like Cialis and Levitra.
Here is the Viagra drug information from Pfizer, found their website. I have removed a considerable amount of technical Viagra information that does not apply to Peyronie’s disease to make it easier to find what you need to know. Notice the section below that I have put in bold and underlined.
PRECAUTIONS
General
The evaluation of erectile dysfunction should include a determination of potential underlying causes and the identification of appropriate treatment following a complete medical assessment.
Before prescribing VIAGRA, it is important to note the following:
The safety of VIAGRA is unknown in patients with bleeding disorders and patients with active peptic ulceration.
VIAGRA should be used with caution in patients with anatomical deformation of the penis (such as angulation, cavernosal fibrosis or Peyronie’s disease), or in patients who have conditions which may predispose them to priapism (such as sickle cell anemia, multiple myeloma, or leukemia).
The safety and efficacy of combinations of VIAGRA with other treatments for erectile
dysfunction have not been studied. Therefore, the use of such combinations is not recommended.
In humans, VIAGRA has no effect on bleeding time when taken alone or with aspirin. In vitro studies with human platelets indicate that sildenafil potentiates the antiaggregatory effect of sodium nitroprusside (a nitric oxide donor). The combination of heparin and VIAGRA had an additive effect on bleeding time in the anesthetized rabbit, but this interaction has not been studied in humans.
Use of any drug to assist erections in Peyronie’s disease
It is my opinion that any man who is undergoing Peyronie’s disease treatment is taking a huge risk to use any of these erection producing drugs because it has been my observation and experience in talking to hundreds of men about their Peyronies problem, that these drugs can injure the penis and actually start Peyronie’s disease, make it worse, or possibly delay or interfere with your effort to try to heal your Peyronie’s plaque. This happens because of the damage done by the surprisingly strong and uncontrollable erections these drugs can create.
With the use of these drugs it is possible that the forced erections they cause can place great internal stress within the penis that can injure the delicate tunica albuginea. The erections created by these drugs can be indeed super-erections, greater than what a man normally experiences.
I have had a number of men tell me they are convinced their Peyronie’s disease started after using Viagra, Cialis, etc. I am confident that at a later time we will start to hear reports about more side-effects of these medications. This should not be so difficult to believe when you can read for yourself that the drug manufacturer is already warning men in particular with Peyronie’s disease to be cautious about its use.
Peyronie’s disease aggravated easily
Super-charging an erection is not the way the body was designed to be used.
What if you could take a drug that would enable you to lift a ton of weight above your head and keep it there for an hour? Nice trick, very impressive, but your body is not built to take that kind of pressure to the muscles, ligaments, joints, bones and blood vessels. A trick like that would cause great damage to internal organs, your spine, blood vessels, all major joints, etc. Simply put, “It just ain’t natural.” Same with these erection drugs like Levitra and Viagra. The increased pressure created by these medications can be very damaging to the delicate tunica albuginea, and can result in or worsen a case of PD.
What would happen to your car tires if you happened to over-inflate them with 100 pounds of air pressure, even though they were built to take just 40 pounds of pressure? You would be running the risk of damage to the internal structure of tire, wouldn’t you? Of course. The same thing can happen if the penis is over-inflated and then given a “rough ride.” This is where the problems start, and this is what I want to bring to your attention.
Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are not a Peyronie’s treatment
It is very likely that the MDs who prescribe these medications to men with Peyronie’s disease will not agree with this thinking. MDs tend to favor a chemical “fix” to most problems, so you would tend to expect a natural and automatic prejudice from an MD to use drugs to solve most problems.
If you have taken Cialis or any other erection producing drug because it was prescribed for you, and you mention this information to your MD, what do you suppose he or she will say? Well, the first thing you must consider is that this information indicates that your doctor prescribed something for you that was not safe or appropriate. The natural reaction would be for your doctor to immediately defend her decision. That makes sense. It is not my intention to make trouble for your doctor, she was only doing what she thought was best for you. It is my intention for you to independently think about these things and see if they make sense to you, the owner of the penis that could become injured. Do more research on your own, then talk to your doctor. This way you are armed with both sides of the story.
It is my further intention to prevent you from injuring yourself further with these erection producing drugs.
A penis that is predisposed to Peyronies in the first place cannot tolerate the kind of stress that these erections drugs create. It is just like someone with asthma cannot tolerate dust, odors or smoke that does not bother other people. If you already have Peyronies you should do everything you can to avoid any kind of stress to this tissue, including avoidance of erection producing drugs.
I talk to a lot of men who are given a prescription for Viagra, etc. to help their sexual difficulty, and they instinctively know that this treatment does not make sense to them. Yet, they are tempted to use the drug because of the promise of improved sexual performance; besides, they are also tempted because they feel, “Heck, my doctor would not do anything to hurt me, maybe it is OK to do.” I would agree, your doctor would not want to hurt you intentionally. Yet, we all know that tens of thousands of people are hurt each year by drugs that are given with good intentions and bad consequences.
In addition, I have talked to many men who have reported to me that they used these erections drugs many times, maybe for several months, with absolutely no problem. The erections were “normal” and controllable, and everything was fine, and the sex was great. Then, one night, one time, they took that same drug in the same way, and they got an erection that was unbelievably hard and huge, and they thought they were going to explode. It scared the devil out of both partners. A few days or weeks later – a curved penis and Peyronie’s disease developed.
If you attempt to think independently and logically about what might happen to your Peyronie’s disease when these drugs are used, you should have no trouble understanding how this could work against you. If your doctor can convince you that they are perfectly safe, then you should do what your doctor says to do. Just remember, who that penis is attached to if a tragedy happens. Your doctor will shrug his shoulders; you will have a worse case of PD.
My opinion is that the use of Viagra and similar erection drugs could easily be worsening the very problem you are attempting to heal. The use of these drugs represents a calculated risk that you are taking, and you should be aware of it.
Please write a comment or question about this article if you want to know more about Peyronie’s disease treatment with Viagra, Levitra or Cialis.
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A comment about the start of my Peyronie’s disease. Viagra was not working as well as “advertised” at their mid-range (50mg) dose. I increased it to the higher dosage where it worked much better but a couple of times I had a very painful erection. I didn’t think too much about it but within a few weeks/month, I noticed the beginnings of a curvature and misshapen erection.
It was later diagnosed as Peyronie’s disease and for the last several years I have not been able to attain any sort of erection and barely anything with ED drugs. I’m sure that Pfizer wouldn’t confess to it as a contributor to the start of my Peyronie’s disease, but it seems too coincidental.
I know you understand how frustrating it is to have Peyronie’s disease and my doctor did prescribe Cialis for me but I feel so good now that I did not take his advice! Thank You!
I’m 59 and I have soft erections and it goes up and down frequently during sexual intercourse, I am able to satisfied my girlfriend still and we do it almost every day, I have PD for a little over 3 months now.
Thanks for your help and my question is:
Would having sex often helps Peyronie’s disease? and
any natural treatments suggestions?
Again thank you for caring,
David
I have been using Viagra/Cialis since my GP acknowledged my ED issues some twelve years ago. I used them without problem for most of this time, and although I would say my ED was pretty serious without the drugs I found a new lease of sex life with them. There appeared to be no problems until about eighteen months back, when one day I had a morning erection on waking. I noticed something strange, my penis was suddenly ‘thin’ and the left hand side of the base was concave, with no blood filling it out. The result was that my penis, whilst hard, was flopping to one side.
I let this subside, and tried to ignore it and did not have sex for a few weeks after it. When I next took a Viagra I noticed that there was, in addition to the ‘thin-ness’ a pronounced ‘curve’. I looked this up on the net, and saw that it was Peyronie’s disease. However, although I have had sex far less often since this I have still used Viagra when engaging in sexual activity, and been able to perform. The only problem is a general reduced sensation, but nothing else. At my age (63) I have decided not to try and seek a ‘cure’ for the Peyronie’s disease, but having read this article I am concerned as to whether I should even continue with a sex life, albeit one made possible by Viagra.
Peyronie’s disease
I do in retrospect feel that Viagra and other ED drugs may have in the longer term led to the Peyronie’s disease. I had strong erections with them, and perhaps the pressure and force of these, and ‘flexiibility’ during intercourse on occasion may have prompted the formation of the plaque. I am for the time being resolved to leaving these drugs alone, and seeing if the Peyronie’s disease does lessen. I still have weakfish morning erections without drugs, and since I first noticed the curve it seems less pronounced, unless I am seeing this to ease my own worries. I have also bought a vacuum pump to try as I was told this may work over time.
In conclusion, I would advise others to be careful with these drugs lest Peyronie’s disease develops, they have been available for a relatively short time and only now are side effects studies beginning to emerge. The pharmaceutical companies will be keen to suppress negative research findings, but remember the side effects of Thalidomide took some time to emerge and we all know the scale of the use of that drug in the 1960s was considerable when it was seen as the solution to a problem.
Greetings Peter,
Over the course of many areas of the PDI website you can find articles and discussions I have written about Viagra, Cialis and Levitra causing Peyronie’s disease. Please search for these articles that explain the causal connection between PDE5 drugs and Peyronie’s disease. Continued use of these medications will likely worsen the PD you already have. There are other options that are available to you found on the PDI site for your ED problem that will not aggravate your PD. Please check out the PDI site to learn more about how you work to can help reverse your Peyronie’s disease. TRH
Greetings David,
Yes, I know how frustrating it can be to have Peyronie’s disease. I dealt with it for almost two years before eliminating it with Alt Med in 2002, and I have worked with thousands of men ever since then to help them to do the same. Your questions:
Having sex often is a good idea when you have Peyronie’s disease because it helps to keep your local blood circulation active in that area, and it keeps your mental health strong.
Read the PDI website for all the hundreds of pages of information about using Alt Med to help the body heal Peyronie’s disease naturally. It can be done, because the body heals PD in half the cases even without help; when their is concentrated help the odds are put in your favor to eliminate the Peyronie’s disease in a natural way. TRH
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Greetings Mark,
Your story about using more and more Viagra leading to injury that causes Peyronie’s disease is a common one. I hear your story a few times a week, it is that common. But what you might not know is that it is common for a low dose of Viagra to become ineffective over time, leading a man to slowly need more and more Viagra to develop the kind of erection he wants. This slowly building dosage of Viagra leads to injury due to “over inflation” of the penis chambers so they tear and become fibrous, eventually becoming bad enough to be Peyronie’s disease. I refer this as a “killer erection” that a lot of men and women enjoy because hey are larger and harder than normal or average for that man, but it tears him up because he is not built for it. It would be like putting 150 PSI into a tire that is built to take 32 PSI; it would blow up. Lots of men have fallen into this cycle and trap, and now have Peyronie’s disease problems that the MDs just shrug their shoulders about. They are not saying anything because it would only lead to legal and malpractice problems for themselves. A conspiracy of silence.
You are invited to check out the PDI site to learn how you can use the Alt Med treatments as a group to help your immune system heal your fibrous Peyronie’s disease tissue. TRH