How to Manage Painful Erections
Painful erections are usually more than a mild inconvenience. Learn what to do once it happens, including how the right treatment can help.
When you hear the words, sexual dysfunction, you may automatically assume we’re referring to erectile dysfunction (ED), but that aspect is only part of the picture.
As men’s health experts, board-certified urologist Dr. Mike Hsieh and our team understand the complex nature of sexual dysfunction and the wide net it casts over many areas of your health, including your psychological health.
Here’s a look at sexual dysfunction and how we can break the cycle.
Your sexual health depends upon many areas of your body functioning optimally, including your:
As you can see by this list, sexual dysfunction can stem from any number of issues, from physical deficits to stress and anxiety.
Making matters more complicated, sexual dysfunction can begin in one of the aforementioned areas above and impact the others. To illustrate this point, let’s take ED that’s caused by poor blood flow, which is one of the more common sexual dysfunctions among men, especially as they age.
If you’re unable to achieve or maintain an erection because of lack of blood flow, the problem can become far more than just a physical one as you’re left frustrated and anxious, which further hampers your sexual performance.
On the other side of this coin, perhaps you suffer from performance anxiety, which can quickly lead to anxiety, depression, and ED. Some of the more common reasons why men experience performance anxiety include:
The bottom line is that there are many entrances into the vicious circle of sexual dysfunction, but once you’re in, it hijacks other areas of your health to the point that you don’t know where to begin to address the problem. That’s where we come in.
Our team is sensitive to the fact that sexual dysfunction often contains both physical and psychological components. Our job is to try to unearth the underlying cause of the problem so that we can help you break the cycle.
If we find that poor blood flow is the culprit, the good news is that there are many solutions, including medications, injections, and implants. Not to mention, we also recommend lifestyle changes (namely diet and exercise) that improve your circulation. As we begin to address this problem directly, your improving sex life should remedy your psychological symptoms.
Another starting point for sexual dysfunction is an imbalance in your hormones, specifically your testosterone levels. To determine whether you have low testosterone, we review your symptoms and conduct blood tests that help us identify any deficits. If your testosterone levels are low, we turn to hormone replacement treatments.
If physically, everything checks out, we explore the psychological side of the equation to determine whether your sexual dysfunction is caused by anxiety, depression, stress, or relationship issues. In these cases, we refer you to specialists who will help you overcome your mental hurdles.
Rest assured, whatever the issue behind your sexual dysfunction, we’re here to help. To get on the road to better sexual health, simply contact our office in La Jolla, California, to set up an appointment.
