Erectile dysfunction, (ED) also named as “male impotence” is characterized as the constant lack of ability to accomplish or sustain an erection which can satisfy the sexual needs of man or his partner. Erectile dysfunction may be of just one time appearance or it can be severe or chronic sometimes. For chronic erectile dysfunction, a clear understanding is needed between both, male and female partner. It is a more common disease for middle-aged men and men older than 65 but, there is no parameters for it as it can affect anybody at any age.

What is Erection?

Erection starts in the brain as a result of the discharge of chemicals like acetylcholine, epinephrine and nitric oxide. Signals are sent to the vascular system which is resulted in to a sprint of blood towards the penis. There are two arteries that supply the blood in the penis to the tissues which erectile. The sprint of blood in the arteries swells up and resulted in the expansion of the penis. If the penile tissue remains stiff, it can be prevented the blood from leaving the penis for the period of erection. When the ejaculation takes place, the penile strain decreases with the blood released and the penis come again to its usual size and shape.

If you want to achieve and sustain an erection, there are four key factors:

• Healthy blood vessels which can carry blood towards the penis.
• Healthy nerves which help in controlling the erection.
• One’s desire to be sexually motivated.
• The male hormone called testosterone which is in the male testicles.

The presence of all these factors is very important because if any of these is absent, the result can be a short-term or chronic erectile dysfunction.

What causes impotence or erectile dysfunction

There are many causes, natural and un-natural by which the erectile dysfunction can happen. You can have physical and psychological reason for this. Let’s take a quick look at some of them:

Physical Causes of erectile dysfunction:

• Medication: Medication is one of the primary causes of erectile dysfunction. What it does is it reduces the blood flow, towards the penis.
• Nerve damage: It is another common physical cause.
  The reasons of physical causes can be:
  • Damage of the organs like the brain, the pelvis, the penis and the spinal cord.
  • Diseases like Arteriosclerosis, Diabetes, Liver damage and Kidney disease can also contribute.
• Surgery: If a person undergoes any of the surgeries like the radical surgery of the prostate or the pelvic region and bladder, it may resulted in the nerve damage which affect the capability to sustain an erection.

Psychological Causes of impotency

Erectile dysfunction can be resulted because of psychological causes if a man is powerless to have a usual erection during lovemaking with his partner. There are many psychological reasons which affect the sexual like of men like:

• Anxiety can cause erectile dysfunction

Depression
Sexual abuses during early days.
Feeling fright of sexual failure which can be resulted in to chronic erectile dysfunction.
Guilt
Indifference
Low self-respect
Stress due to reasons like job, economical or marital problems.

Medicines:

There are many medicines of various diseases which gives erectile dysfunction as their side effect to the patients. To name a few:

• Anti epileptic medicines
• Anti inflammatory medicines
• Antidepressant medicines
• Antihistamine medicines
• High blood pressure medicines
• Parkinson disease medicines
• Tranquilizer medicines

Other Causes of male impotency:

There are some other causes which actually are man-made causes which resulted in the erectile dysfunction.

• Alcoholism
• Exhaustion
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Tiredness
• Things like cocaine, marijuana and opiates.

Patients at high risk of erectile dysfunction

There are some patients who, you can say at high risk of erectile dysfunction:

• The Men who have life-threatening heart attack or stroke in last six months.
• If you are a cardiac patient and you are told that sexual doings could aggravate cardiac problems.
• If you are taking medicines like Cialis, Levitra or Viagra with nitrate drugs like Iso-sorbide Di nitrate, Iso-sorbide Mono nitrate and nitroglycerin.

Treatment for impotence

There are various treatments available to cope with the erectile dysfunction.

Needle-Injection Therapy:

In this therapy, alprostadil is injected to the bottom of the penis, which produces an erection within 5 to 20 minutes. This erection lasts for an hour. The injection is just a little bit painful.
Side effects: Pain in the injection site, prolonged erection, development of fibrous tissue

Self-Administered Intra Urethral Therapy:

In this therapy, a disposable applicator injects a small suppository with the size of half the size of a rice grain in the tilt of the penis.
Side effects: Pain, discomfort, slight bleeding in urethra.

Vascular Surgery:

This surgery is generally used for men who had a problem blocked blood flow, caused by damage to the pelvic area or penis. It is also used for erectile dysfunction as a result of vascular blockages. It is not a successful long-term surgical treatment.

Penile Implants:

In this treatment, a device is placed in both sides of the penis. As a result of that you can have an erection for a longer and desirable time. This treatment is very expensive, so it is least considered.
Side effects: Small risk of infection.

Hormone Replacement Therapy:

It is used for the men who have testosterone deficiency.

Psychological Counseling

If the erectile dysfunction is caused by psychological factors like anxiety, depression or stress psychological counseling can be very effective.

You can also follow some tips yourself as prevention because as it is said, “Prevention is better than cure”.

• Avoid using Alcohol and other similar drugs.
• Exercise regularly
• Get sufficient sleep
• Reduce Stress
• Stop smoking

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