ED Treatments

Lifestyle changes including exercise, quit smoking, lose weight, and cutting back on alcohol may solve the problem. Numbers of other treatments are also available.

If life style changes not produce expected results and still have erection problems, many treatment options are available to overcome ED.

Even though most cases of ED have a physical cause, counseling can help couples deal with the emotional effects.

Your doctor may prescribe a pill to treat ED. Current brands include Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis. These drugs work by increasing blood flow to the penis. Do not take any of these drugs if you are taking nitrates, a type of heart medicine.

Medicines injected into the shaft of the penis or inserted into the tip of the penis usually cause an erection within 50 to 15 minutes and last for 30 minutes to several hours. Prostaglandin (alprostadil, Caverject, Edex), and phentolamine (Regitine), they causes vascular dilation and a relaxation of smooth muscle. This injection is used not more than once in 4 to 7 days.

It can be used to manually create an erection. The penis is inserted into a plastic tube; a hand pump attached to the tube is operated to create a vacuum which draws blood into the penis, causing the penis to become erectile. Then the penis is removed from the tube and a soft rubber ring is placed over the base of the penis to stop blood and maintain the erection until it is removed. This method improve erections regardless of the cause of impotence, it can be used for 25 to 30 minutes.

If other options fail, a surgeon can implant a device into the penis that inflates or can be straightened to create an erection.

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