Afraid that I might have ED (29M). Please help, doctors.

[ken_adams]

Hi all, I'm new to this forums. I'm a single 29M who is currently quite worried about my penile health. I also apologise if my sharing is a bit too candid.


A few weeks ago, I was trying to masturbate and I couldn't climax. After that, my body felt pretty cold. Over the next 3 days, I noticed that my penis felt flaccid throughout the day. I also did not get any random erections or morning erections for these 3 days. I could only get an erection on the 4th day, which happened when I scratched my penis due to it having a slight itch. For the next few weeks, I could still masturbate from time to time, but I got very few to no random/morning erections. It also seems like my penis does not respond to visual stimulation like it used to. I think I can only get an erection if I physically stimulate it. It also feels like my refractory period after masturbation is now a lot longer. Like i have to wait a few hours to days to get it up again. I also feel like my sex drive has decreased. I don't think about sex or have the urge to masturbate as often as before.

This all happened quite suddenly. In December 2020 and the months before that, it felt like everything was fine.

I have many questions but I think I'll stick with the following 4 for now. And I would appreciate if you could answer any or all of them.

1. Is this ED?
2. What do you think could be causing this?
3. Should I seek medical attention or should I wait to see if it gets better on its own?
4. Would abstaining from masturbation for the time being help?

[Dr. Zeng Shanyong]

Hi ken_adams,

Regarding your questions:

1. This could very well be erectile dysfunction.

2. There are many different causes of erectile dysfunction, ranging from psychogenic to real physical problems. For ED in younger patients, the more common causes tends to be psychogenic, for example with new partners/stress/performance anxiety.

I would guess that your problem is psychogenic in nature. However, there's a need to rule out other medical problems with other tests as well if this problem is persistent.

3. You could probably monitor your own situation for a couple of months before seeking medical attention.

4. You could try reducing the frequency of masturbation to see if it helps. Patients with frequent masturbation/prosopography use tends to have a higher arousal threshold hence leading to psychogenic erectile dysfunction.

Regards

[ken_adams]

Dear Dr Zeng,

Thank you so much for your quick reply! This issue has been giving me a lot of anxiety of late and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So I really appreciate your help. Would it be alright if I post more questions here from time to time? I am still trying to decide on what the best course of action would be.

Ken

[Dr. Zeng Shanyong]

Hi ken_adams,

You are most welcome to ask any further questions.

Regards