Viagra Question
For the last couple of years, I’ve had increasing difficulty getting and keeping an erection hard enough for penetration. I’ve tried Viagra and all of the other oral ED drugs now on the market, but none of them seems to work for me. What other forms of treatment are available for ED?
Answer
While the oral ED drugs are undoubtedly the simplest way of overcoming the symptoms of erectile dysfunction, they don’t work for everyone, even among those whose impotence is caused by insufficient blood flow to the penis. Perhaps the next best form of treatment for vascular-related ED is penile injection therapy, which has an even higher success rate than Viagra or the other PDE5 inhibitors.
In penile injection therapy, a vasodilating drug — alprostadil, for example — is injected directly into the shaft of the penis, which sounds more painful than it actually is.
The injected drug quickly dilates the blood vessels in the penis and allows blood to quickly flood in and engorge the corpora cavernosa — the twin columns of spongy tissue that are inside the penis and run pretty much through the entire length of the shaft. As this spongy erectile tissue becomes filled with blood, the penis becomes harder until it achieves an optimal erection.
The only major side effect associated with this form of treatment is the risk of developing scar tissue at the injection site. This problem can be minimized by varying the site where you inject the needle.