Hi Dr, I have been to a GP and was told i have Peyronies. My penis curves to the left but I cannot have a erection and feeling in my penis is just about null. What do i do to get an erection so at least intercourse is possible ?
Regards…D
Greetings D,
There are many reasons a man might not be able to develop an erection. Penis erection is a complicated process and many things can affect it. To keep this discussion from being a three hour email, I will limit my response only to the single issue of Peyronie's disease as it relates to ED (erectile dysfunction) or the inability to develop an erection.
During the cold winter months I like to warm up the bathroom before taking a shower. To warm the room I will turn on a small portable electric heater in the bathroom 30 minutes before showering to bring the temperature up to a toasty temperature. Sometimes I forget to completely close the door to the bathroom, and this prevents the heat from being trapped in the room. If I leave the door open just a little, only a little heat collects in the room; if I leave the door wide open, no heat collects in the room. Most of the time when I make this mistake my wife will close the door for me (after reminding me I made that mistake again), and I will give her a big hug. But when she does not notice the heater running with the door open I will have take a shower in a room that is cooler than I like.
That little heater does a great job of heating the room if the door is closed. Closing the door is part of the process of trapping the heat that is created. In a way, the door is more important to the room warming up than is the heater because the heater could run all day long with the door open and it never would warm the room.
A similar mechanism happens in the penis to develop an erection. Blood is continually being pumped to all parts of the body, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on activity and needs of the body, but all parts of the body have a continual supply of fresh blood. The penis has a much different kind of blood vessel arrangement than other parts of the body because it can almost immediately trap the blood that is being pumped into it. When this happens it is like the bathroom with the door closed, or like a balloon that has been tied off.
When Peyronie's disease happens, a mass of fibrous tissue called a plaque or scar develops within the layer of the penis known as the tunica albuginea. This scar is not supposed to be there; it is not a normal thing, and the fact that it is there within the tunica albuginea very often makes it difficult or impossible for the veins of the penis to trap blood. You might say that the veins have valves within them, and the fibrous plaque prevents those valves from closing. When the valves do not close, the blood is not trapped and no internal pressure is built up that is associated with an erection. This inability to close the valves of the veins might affect just a small part, or a large part, or all of the penis, causing a small, large or the entire penis to be soft or not erect.
The solution for this problem is not to pump your body full of drugs to make an artificial and temporary erection, because this does nothing for what is really wrong with you (plaque in the tunica albuginea) and it might cause other health problems as a side effect. The solution is to eliminate, if possible and as much as possible, the plaque that prevents the valves from closing that causes the penis to be soft or flaccid (not erect).
To learn how to help your body eliminate the Peyronie's plaque or scar please review the information at "Start Peyronies treatment." TRH
