Erectile Dysfunction

[frammyboy]

I'm a 54 year old male and I began a intense exercise program (6 days a week) in January and then erections problems came on gradually over the last 4 months. Now, I'm completely impotent. I no longer have early morning erections and I am unable to have an erection when I try to be intimate with my wife.

I had blood work done in March and my doctor advised me that everything appeared normal. My blood pressure is fine and my pulse is 60 in the resting position.

I have a strong sex drive but I'm unable to achieve an erection at anytime.

Do you think the strenuous exercise may have brought on this erectile dysfunction problem? What are some the other possible causes that should be considered?

Please help - I'm really concerned!

[jb55]

From what you mentioned in your post,  it appears that your problem might be more psychological than physical.  First check with  your urologist to rule out every possible physical problem?   Other  factors might be thyroid problems, diabetes, testosterone levels etc.  It is very possible that if you are working out strenuously during the day on top of your regular job as well as normal daily living stress, that your energy will be sapped by the end of the day and if that is the time when you try to squeeze in some intimacy that you will not be able to get the cooperation from Mr. reliable down there.   So try to plan your intimate encounter on a day where you take off completely from any physical workout.   There really is no need to work out 6 days a week for one or more hours each time.  I find that 4 to 5 days max of aerobic exercise is more than sufficient to keep me in good shape and leave enough time and energy for other activities.   I find that fast walking is the best exercise.   I used to do bicycling but I always had musculoskeletal aches and pains in my back and shoulder and to boot I read  that it might cause erectile dysfunction.   So if you do bike, consider reducing or eleminating that activity and replace it with something else.    Eating highly nutritous foods with emphasis on grains, fruits and vegetables as well as some fish and non-fat dairy products is also very important.  Losing weight is also very helpful.  Of course smoking and  exessive drinking are not helpful in that department.   Actually it is better not to drink at all if you are having problems.   Another important factor, find out the time of the day where you feel your best and most robost.   Usually  you will  have more energy and hormones in the morning.   I find that about an hour after breakfast is the best since you are well rested and have fuel to go.  You will have to to know your own body.  

If the root of your problem is psychological,  there are ways to deal with it and they involve some discipline, discussion with your wife (which you mentioned you are already doing),  special exercises for  the PC muscle as well as the area at the base of the penis.   These exercises as well as other tremendous advice is discussed in detail in a book by Barbara keesling called All night long, How to make love to a man over 50 which she wrote mainly for the wives with special sections (involving the PC exercises) for the  men with ED.  Another book I found very helpful is Sex Over 40 by Saul Rosenthal, M.D.   There is a chapter that is especially helpful where you do a  certain exercise with your wife to induce an erection without having intercourse.  You do that over and over until you get the confidence that is needed to overcome past negative experiences.   This was very helpful in my case.   The idea is to not put so much pressure on yourself to perform before you lose the erection which results in exactly that loss.   So you basically train yourself to get the erection, lose it and  get it back again as many times as needed to develop confidence.   If eventually you end up having intercourse during those exercises,  so be it; but try to resist that at first until you get the confidence.   You can order both those books from Amazon and they are very cheap (I got the used ones, they were great.)  

When things start going back to normal,  it will be the best feeling you have had in your life since this is such a big issue for most men.    But  even with success you cannot expect to bat 1000.  There will be times when you will not get cooperation down there for whatever reason but I  have found that when that happens, don't try to force the issue and many times it will come back after few hours or the next day as if it has a mind of its own.   It is just amazing to see how could something that was so frustratingly non-cooperative earlier, come alive again and perform better than when you were 20 years old.

I hope that things work out for you.  You just have to remember that when you hit your 40's and 50's (sometimes even earlier) things are not  automatic anymore and you need to put some more effort for things to go back to as normal as possible and when they do, you feel like you are the king of the hill again.    Good luck

[tlh777]

you should look into this being possible nerve damage.

[frammyboy]

Thanks for responding . No hypertension - Never had higher blood pressure problem or high Cholesterol problem. I was sedentary for many years and never had a chronic erection problem like this.

From all indication, physically, I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm not stressed at work and my wife is very understanding and is not pressuring me in any way because of my lack of performance in the bed.

So, I'm at a loss.

[tlh777]

you have options.if it is nerve damage a microsurgeon could take sural nerves from your leg and graft them into your penis.if not you could try viagra,cialis or caverject.and if you do not like the idea of medicines you could have a penile implant.you should visit a urologist.

[tlh777]

its doubtful the exercise caused it.it could be a nerve problem.the only other causes would be diabetes and as you said high blood pressure or cholesterol.were you losing sensation before this happened?