Penile Varicose Veins

Hi there,
I am 19 years old and have become very self-conscious about some small blue and red veins on my penis. I am not sure excatly when they started occuring, but I do know that they were not always there, and have become more obvious over the past 8 months. I have one small but obvious purplish vein that starts near the base of my penis and extends slightly more than halfway up the length of my penis. Smaller purple veins sprout off or seem to branch off from that, and lighty cover the bottom half of my penis. They are also noticable while my penis is flaccid, but not as much. I have also noticed that it is rather hard for me to obtain a strong erection. Hopefully you will know what I mean by strong, but basically I can get full or near full erections but they go away extremely easy. Right when direct physical stimulation stops I start losing my erection very quickly. I just can't seem to maintain one for very long. Its very hard to find information on this subject, but what I did find suggested that over-maturbation may be one cause of the veins. I started maturbating at about 13 and did so on a regular basis until a few weeks ago when I learned it could be one cause of my problem. I have been told that warm water and soft massage to the problem area might help. In addition to these I have been using a product called, "ProK", a vitamin cream supposed to help heal broken blood vessels. I would like to know the possible explanations for my problem, and if any of the things I am doing can actually help. Is there anything I can do at all to help reduce the appearance or remove these veins completely? When I get erections or ejaculate am I making it worse?  Would taking any of the millions of penile health pills on the market help heal this problem or would they make it worse? I do not want to have any type of surgery, but if there is any practical solution I would like to know about it. If there is simply no cure just let me know, and I'll move on. Thankyou for your time.
Sincerely,
Jack Russell

[Kevin Pho, MD]

One consideration can be Mondor's disease, or thrombophlebitis of the penile veins.  Studies have shown that anti-inflammatory agents can resolve this in 4-6 weeks.  If the symptoms continue past this, then surgery may be considered.  

You may want to consider a urological opinion to ensure there is adequate blood flow to the penis - an ultrasound can be considered to evaluate this.  

Another consideration would be a testosterone level to evaluate a non-vascular cause of the symptoms.  That can be discussed with your personal physician.

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
Medical Weblog:
kevinmd_b

[midwest]

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[gom24]

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