A wide variety of treatment options are available for male sexual dysfunction. You and your doctor will decide which treatment is best for you based on any number of factors. The National Institute of Health has approximated that 5% of 40-year-old-men between 15% and 25% of 65-year-old-men experience erectile dysfunction on a long-term basis. However, more commonly is the problem affecting men at some point in their life for a short period of time. Psychological causes such as stress, anxiety or depression should be ruled out. Side-effects of daily medication, as well as drug or alcohol abuse should also be ruled out as contributing factor.
Below are some treatment options your doctor might recommend:
- Lifestyle changes: Sometimes something as simple as living better can help improve erectile function. Exercise, healthy eating, and stress relief can help the state of your erection.
- Oral medications: these medications treat erectile dysfunction by relaxing smooth muscle in the penis, a process that increases blood flow and enables an erection.
- Sildenafil (Viagra)
- Tadalafil (Cialis)
- Vardenafil (Levitra,Staxyn)
- Injections/suppositories: similar to ED pills, the injectable medicine relaxes the muscles in the surrounding blood vessels of the penis, increasing the blood flow into the penis allowing an erection to occur
- Alprostadil (self-injection): a small needle is used to inject medication into the base or side of the penis
- Alprostadil intreurethral (Muse) therapy: a tiny suppository is placed inside penile urethra using a special applicator.
- Vacuum Pumps: increase blood flow to the penis by pumping air out of the vacuum tube and pulling blood into the penile tissue. In order to maintain erection that is produced by “pumping”, many use constriction rings over the base of the penis.
- Penile implants:
- Inflatable implants: cylinders that are implanted in the erection chambers of the penis and inflated by a hydraulic pump implanted in the scrotum
- Malleable implants: semi-rigid, bendable rods that are implanted into the penis, which can be worked manually into the desired position
How to Treat Male Sexual Dysfunction
It is also important to note that treatment for male sexual dysfunction is patient-specific. There is no one size fits all treatment, and treatment depends on several factors:
- Patient age
- Overall health
- Cause
- Severity
- Preference
- Past medical history
There are also several natural remedies for treating male sexual or erectile dysfunction. These include:
- Yohimbe
- L-arginine
- DHEA
