The number of active users of porn sites has never ceased to rise. This trend worries health officials, because people who are strongly addicted to pornography become unable to build normal relationships with real partners.
Meanwhile the fans of such online endeavors are concerned with a much more pressing issue: does porn actually cause ED? Some want to know the answer just out of curiosity, others get interested after having experienced a failure in bed and think it had something to do with watching pornography. Let's look into this issue objectively and impartially, and let's start with the key question that needs to be answered first and foremost.
What is Erectile Dysfunction Anyway?
The medical term that scares every man has an even more formidable name — impotence (lat. impotens, "powerless"), which is manifested by the inability to achieve an erection and participate in sexual intercourse.
Everything that scares people gives rise to speculation. That's why before examining the true causes of sexual impotence and its connection with watching porn, we need to deal with some questionable information spread around the web.
Common Myths About ED
Despite the fact that men usually hide problems with potency, this does not prevent them from discussing this painful topic on forums and blogs, albeit often framing it as "asking for a friend", while the general lack of knowledge in anatomy, physiology, and psychology commonly found on public forums naturally generates a lot of myths.
Let's list and debunk the most popular ones:
-
Erectile dysfunction is an age-related problem.
It's not true, there are a lot of cheerful old men over 70 who are just as active as they were in their long gone youth. There are also youths who are not capable of sexual intercourse; -
Physically healthy men can't have ED.
By spreading this particular myth, people do not take into account the importance of the state of the psyche and the risk of psychogenic ED, which we will talk about later; -
Beer belly has nothing to do with ED.
Wrong: visceral obesity causes the production of testosterone, which can cause impotence; -
Smoking does not affect potency.
Consider this: after smoking one cigarette, the blood flow in the genitals decreases by 30%. Is that enough to call it a myth? We think so.
And another opinion, which is the primary subject of this discussion, is that watching porn movies will certainly lead to ED. So, how much does it correspond to reality?
Impotence and Porn
Lucky for us, scientists in the USA have conducted serious research on this topic. They even have the term for it: PIED (porn-induced erectile dysfunction), which was coined by a urologist at the Harvard Medical School. However, not all scientists supported this concept, considering it insufficiently objective. After all, men watch porn for different purposes: some want to learn new poses and techniques, others just want to relax; however, there are also those who are simply addicted to porn.
And it is to the latter that the term PIED can be applied with its diagnostic features:
- Erection persists during masturbation, waking up in the morning and watching porn;
- while arousal and erection are absent when trying to be intimate with a real woman;
- addiction is increasing, a person needs more hardcore, explicit porn, sometimes perverted, and forbidden;
- so the man begins to fall out of society and avoid physical contact with people.
Prolonged porn addiction leads not only to total ED, but also to more serious problems that require the help of a good psychiatrist.
So, can porn addiction cause ed? Well, not directly. Any severe consequences of porn addiction are rare, while sexual impotence connected with it is caused by more prosaic factors.
True Causes of Erectile Dysfunction
According to scientists, only in 20% of cases impotence is psychogenic. These cases include: stress, insomnia, family conflicts, and overwork. This also includes sexual phobias and psychological traumas usually connected to women.
However, in 80% of cases, erectile dysfunction is still associated with physiology, which is disorders in various systems and organs:
- Disorders related to cavernous erectile tissue;
- bronchial asthma;
- diabetes mellitus;
- arterial hypertension;
- prostatitis;
- Peyronie's disease (formation of collagen plaques in the connective tissue of the penis);
- obesity;
- spinal cord injuries and intervertebral hernias;
- low testosterone levels.
Erection is a rather complex mechanism, and its violation is often caused by one main factor and several concomitant ones. In most cases, watching porn is not related to this in any way, so this factor is not taken into account at all when diagnosing and treating erectile dysfunction.
Treatment Methods
With things like ED, men turn to a urologist or andrologist. To get a really effective treatment, your doctor needs to know about your lifestyle as well as your medical history. To find out the cause of erectile dysfunction, ultrasound of the pelvic organs, a coverject test, and laboratory tests are usually prescribed.
Treatment depends on the cause/degree of pathology and may include the following:
- alpha-blockers, vasodilators, antiplatelet agents, testosterone;
- erection stimulant drugs, including various popular brands as well as their cheap analogues, like generic Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate) or generic Cialis (Tadalafil);
- intracavernous injections of prostaglandin and other drugs immediately before sexual intercourse;
- vacuum therapy;
- psychotherapeutic treatment.
Erectile dysfunction can be temporary and ongoing. In the second case, intracavernous falloprosthetics remain the only way to have sex.
Conclusion
Porn does not cause erectile dysfunction (except for pathological dependence). But it is not to be ignored, since there are many effective methods of treatment.