Have you ever wondered why some men shun relationships? We have all seen the type. They might be popular with the ladies. They may go on a few dates. But they never take it further, and they leave a trail of women questioning what is wrong with them. At weddings, they get self-appointed matchmakers trying to pair them off, and they go through a period like William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant) in the film Notting Hill, where exasperated friends try and engineer situations for them to meet people and end up thinking they will never find a soul mate.
But unlike William Thacker, many of these men are hiding a secret that, in their minds, is too serious and too deep for them ever to have a normal relationship. In this age where nothing is secret and reputations can be damaged in seconds on social media, some would prefer to suffer in silence rather than risk the ignominy of their secret becoming public. But many of these men don’t realise that their secret shouldn’t be kept a secret, they should seek medical help, and if treated with the most advanced technology by the best experts in the field, they could resume a normal, happy life again.
Charles Turner, the Joint Managing Partner of Mansmatters, Europe’s leading non-invasive Men’s Health Clinic, agrees. ‘We get men travelling to us worldwide to treat two main conditions: Peyronie’s Disease and Erectile Dysfunction. Unfortunately, there aren’t many specialist clinics because men don’t openly complain about these conditions. But with state-of-the-art technology, many men are very treatable’.
Peyronie’s Disease, in some form, affects up to 9% of men. In the mild form, it is barely noticed, whilst its most severe form means a man can’t have penetrative sex. Erectile Dysfunction affects around 50% of men over the age of 40. Whereas Erectile Dysfunction is now widely understood because of the explosion in the use of drugs like Viagra, Peyronie’s Disease is still relatively unknown. For most medical conditions of this magnitude, there would be charities supporting the men, but for these conditions’ information and real help is sparse. There is one UK-based forum, but apart from that, there is relatively little independent support across Europe.
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So, what is the difference between Erectile Dysfunction and Peyronie’s Disease, and is there any connection between them? Both are conditions of the male genitalia, meaning that many men cannot have penetrative sex. Erectile Dysfunction is due to whether a man can get hard enough to have satisfactory penetrative sex. Around 70% of the cases of Erectile Dysfunction are vascular. In non-medical terms, this concerns the blood flowing into the penis. A man needs twenty times the normal amount of blood to flow into the penis to have a full erection. When this doesn’t happen, or it declines through age or illness, the erections get weaker until it is not possible to have penetrative intercourse. Often men who suffer vascular Erectile Dysfunction suffer Psychological Erectile Dysfunction. When they are in a situation where they are about to have sex, fear sets in, and their mind tells them they will fail, it exacerbates the situation, and their Erectile Dysfunction gets worse. It is a vicious cycle that they can’t break out of.
Peyronie’s Disease is different to Erectile Dysfunction. However, having Peyronie’s Disease can bring on Erectile Dysfunction as well. With Peyronie’s Disease, the penis starts to deform. The most common deformity is where the penis bends up like a banana. Where the bend is less than 30 degrees, most men can still have intercourse, but this deformity can get much greater for many. In extreme cases, the penis, when erect, can bend around 180 degrees or form the shape of a pigtail.
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The penis can also narrow along the shaft, creating the impression of an hourglass or suffering extreme indentation.
A fibrous plaque causes Peyronie’s Disease; in non-medical terms, this is internal scarring. This internal scarring prevents the penis from expanding on the side where it resides. This means that when the penis becomes erect, the non-scarring side expands, and the scarring side does not, and the bend occurs. To understand this effect, you could take a long party balloon, puts some sticky tape along one side and blow it up. You would see that the balloon bends in the direction where the tape is.
Peyronie’s Disease can form overnight or take a few months. It is also directly impacting erectile function, and a proportion of men who develop Peyronie’s Disease start to notice erection weakness, a shrinkage of their penis, less sensitivity and, in the early stages, acute pain. The Peyronie’s scarring prevents blood from flowing freely into the penis, affecting a man’s ability to have an erection.
Also Read: The 5 Most Common Female Sexual Problems & How To Treat Them
So, if you happen to be a man that suffers from Erectile Dysfunction or Peyronie’s Disease, and this is stopping you from developing a relationship with a partner, what should you do?
The worst thing you can do is to be in denial and shun the thought of developing a relationship and casting yourself as a pariah. Firstly, there are specialist clinics out there, there have also been tremendous improvements in treatments, and there are breakthrough technologies such as focused shockwave therapy combined with Electromagnetic
Transduction therapy, Nano Vi and the Tesla chair that can treat your condition. Another important factor to remember is that you are not alone. A staggeringly high proportion of men suffer these conditions in silence. Also, not all relationships are based on penetrative sex. Speak to any gynaecologist, and they will tell you that women have various problems, such as urge and stress incontinence, that affect their sexuality as well.
One of the biggest problems in today’s society is that we are heavily conditioned by the media, especially social media, which leads us to believe that every couple out there has a beautiful, blissful existence and sex is an effortless part of life.
For many people, this simply isn’t the case, and if you are a male suffering from men’s health conditions, then seek treatment, but don’t for one minute think you are the odd one out and don’t go into a spiral of depression. It is good to talk, and there is help out there.
