Questions about Peyronie’s disease and Viagra are common.   Viagra, one of the PDE5 inhibitor drugs, is wildly popular and widely used not only among men who have erectile dysfunction (ED, impotence), but healthy men who merely use it to have longer lasting and more repetitive sexual intercourse.

While I hate to spoil the fun, over the years I have had a disturbing number of men tell me that they now have Peyronies, and Viagra was the cause of it.  They report the erections that occurred after using Viagra were super-erections and caused greater than normal internal pressure and pain.  Shortly after having such and episode they report having Peyronie’s disease; Viagra use is the only possible cause, because no trauma occurred.

It makes sense that any of the PDE5 inhibiter drugs (Cialis and Levitra are the others) increase pressure that is sometimes greater than normal with the tunica albuginea. In addition, these drugs create such hard and long-lasting erections because they induce an artificial condition within the penis.

If it were possible to take a drug that would allow you to lift a truck above your head and keep it there for an hour, should you do it?  That would be an interesting, and very impressive to the ladies, but is that reason enough to subject your body to the potential risk that would be involved?   The fact is that the body is not built to be used that way.  Lifting a great amount of weight causes internal pressure on tissue and organs that were not meant to bear that kind of weight.  Great injury would occur to internal organs, your spine, knees, hips, shoulders, blood vessels, and so on.  The same relationship exists between Peyronies and Viagra, and the rest of these products.

All of this is so unfortunate because there are far safer methods for Peyronie’s disease treatment.

Even though it sounds like a teenagers dream come true, the penis is not designed or intended to sustain such great internal pressures that are created by these drugs, nor is the penis built to be used in hour after hour of intercourse.  Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  That kind of activity can be abusive to the delicate tunica albuginea and could be the connection between Peyronies and Viagra or any other PDE5 inhibitor drug.

Several months ago a man told me he injured his penis while using Viagra.  He took some Viagra for the first time to the delight of his wife, and him.  After rousing intercourse, both fell asleep except his penis stayed erect.  He enjoyed the enormous erection and at first he thought it was great.  While asleep with this huge erection he rolled over and jammed his penis into the mattress.  In great pain, he heard and felt the tissue of the penis “pop.”  Two months later he was diagnosed with Peyronie’s disease.

Weekly I am told or I read that MDs write orders for their patients with Peyronies and Viagra is the most commonly prescribed drug.   The MD will explain that the Viagra will increase the blood flow to the penis and this is beneficial to Peyronie’s disease.  I think this is nonsense.

While there is an increased amount of blood within the penis during an erection that causes the greater size of the organ, it is perhaps only 2-3 tablespoons more blood than is normally present.  But here is the most important point that explains why this idea is so silly:  The extra blood, and even the normal amount of blood that is inside the penis during an erection, is TRAPPED there.  It is not freely flowing, or moving in and out as you would like to happen, to actually increase circulation.  During an erection, there is less true circulation of blood – that is why the penis gets darker, because there is less oxygen present – and so there is no therapeutic purpose in creating super erections with Viagra because that is not the way to get better circulation.

A man would know he actually is suffering from poor circulation in his penis, just as he would know he has poor circulation in any other part of his body – like his feet or hands.  When the feet or hands have poor circulation they become cold, painful and pale.  If your penis is not cold, painful and pale, then reduced circulation is not your problem.  And enduring prolonged erections from a PDE5 inhibitor will not help your Peyronie’s disease, and could make it worse.

If you want to increase circulation to the penis, you can do it as you would to your feet or hands.  You would apply heat to the area as with a hot water bottle, or cover it with a blanket.  You can even rub it!  It is as simple as that.

The increased occurrence of Peyronies and the increased use of Viagra is not a coincidence.  There is a reason more and more men are getting Peyronie’s disease at the same time that more and more men are using Viagra and the other PDE5 inhibitors.  Now you know about Peyronies and Viagra.

Peyronie’s and Cialis (Tadalafil) and PDE5 inhibitors

Peyronie’s and Cialis are both on the rise – no pun intended, and there is a reason for that.

Cialis it is not a Peyronie’s treatment; Cialis is used to treat erectile dysfunction (impotence).   But some MDs use Cialis in Peyronies treatment because they think it will help the patient achieve a stronger erection  since Peyronie’s disease often is associated with erectile dysfunction.   This practice is is coming close scrutiny because Cialis and all the other PDE5 inhibitors like it can actually make Peyronies worse when it causes a very extreme erection that the body is not built to handle.  This can cause damage to delicate tissue and more Peyronie’s scar formation.

Peyronie’s and Cialis Usage

Every man with Peyronie’s should know each package of Cialis contains information warning that men with Peyronie’s disease should use Cialis with great caution because of possible side effects that include damage to the penile tissue that can actually cause Peyronie’s disease if you do not already have it.

MDs write orders for their patients with Peyronies and Cialis is a commonly prescribed drug.   The MD will explain that the Cialis will increase the blood flow to the penis and this is beneficial to Peyronie’s disease.  I think this is nonsense.

An erection is created when blood is TRAPPED inside the penis, causing the spongy tissue to fill up and expand with about 2-3 tablespoons more blood than is normally in the penis.  This additional 2-3 tablespoons of blood become TRAPPED inside the penis, just like when you blow up a balloon and tie a knot at the end of the balloon.  Sure there is more air inside the balloon, but it does not circulate freely – it is stagnant air. And the additional blood also does not circulate freely in the penis.  That is why the penis is darker when it is erect – the blood does not have much oxygen in it, making the tissue darker.  This just goes to show how little many MDs think about what they are doing when they write a prescription.

Cialis is a popular erectile dysfunction drug, but it does not make sense to use it for treatment of Peyronie’s disease. When a man goes to his doctor for his Peyronie’s and Cialis is prescribed, he should understand the reason for the prescription does not make sense.

Cialis and Peyronie’s Connection

While I hate to spoil the fun for those whose sex life is enhanced by Cialis, but over the years I have had a disturbing number of men inform me they now have Peyronies and Cialis use was the cause.  Any of the PDE5 inhibiter drugs (Viagra and Levitra are others) can increase pressure within the penis that  can be greater than normal.  Injury to the tissue can lead to Peyronie’s disease.

If it were possible to take a drug that would allow you to lift a truck above your head and keep it there for an hour, should you do it?  That would be an interesting, and very impressive to the ladies, but is that reason enough to subject your body to the potential risk that would be involved?   The fact is that the body is not built to be used that way.  Lifting a great amount of weight causes internal pressure on tissue and organs that were not meant to bear that kind of weight.  Great injury would occur to internal organs, your spine, knees, hips, shoulders, blood vessels, and so on.  The same relationship exists between Peyronies and Cialis, and the rest of these PDE5 inhibitors.

All of this is so unfortunate because there are far safer methods for Peyronie’s disease treatment.

The increased occurrence of Peyronies and Cialis use also increasing is not a coincidence.  There is a reason that more and more men are getting Peyronie’s disease at the same time that more and more men are using Cialis and the other PDE5 inhibitors.

Boy, do I get questions about Viagra, Cialis and Levitra!  Most of these questions come from men who are taking these drugs on the advice of their MDs who using it as part of their Peyronies treatment efforts.

These drugs are wildly popular, not only among men who have erectile difficulty (impotence) but also healthy men who merely use them to have longer lasting and more repetitive sexual intercourse.

Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it?

While I hate to spoil the fun, but over the years I have had a disturbing number of men tell me they know their PD started after using Viagra, Cialis, etc.   The erections created by these drugs are indeed super-erections and get to be that way because of the greater than normal internal pressure that is created within the tunica albuginea.  This is powerful stuff that can really cause problems in this delicate area of the male body.

These drugs create such hard and long-lasting erections because they induce an abnormal state in the penis. What if you could take a drug that would enable you to lift a ton of weight above your head and keep it there for an hour?  Nice trick, very impressive, but your body is not built to take that kind of pressure.  It would cause great damage to internal organs, your spine, your blood vessels, all major joints, etc.  Simply put, “It just ain’t natural.”  Same with Viagra, and the rest of these products.

As much as it might sound like a dream come true, the penis is not built to sustain increased internal pressures that are created by these drugs, and the penis is not built to have hour after hour of intercourse.  That kind of activity can be abusive to the delicate tunica.  Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I have an interesting story from a man who called me a few months back and explained that he injured his penis in a most unusual way.  He and his wife had used Viagra for the first time to their mutual delight.  Both of them went to sleep, except his penis continued to stay erect.  It was a monster of an erection and at first he thought it was great.  During the night, while asleep with a huge erection, he rolled over in bed and jammed his penis into the mattress.  He felt a great pain and felt the tissue “pop.”  Basically he tried to pole vault on his erection and he found his penis could not sustain that force.  About two months later he developed PD.  Can you imagine what would happen if you already have PD and had something like that happened?  You would go from bad to worse.  This man did.

I know many men with PD have their MDs write prescriptions for these erections drugs.  I am sympathetic why men do these things.  They figure if it was not good for them the MD would now do it.  What they forget is that most MDs do not understand or care about PD, and are more interested in getting the fee for the office visit, than doing what is the smart thing to do.  MDs also perform surgery for PD that makes the problem worse, knowing there is a high rate of poor surgical results from this kind of surgery.  Just because you can get a prescription for it doesn’t make it any safer or any less stupid in the long run.

Use your head and stay away from these forced erections.

One last metaphor.  Your car tires are designed to hold 40 pounds of air pressure.  What would happen if you decided to increase the pressure to 80 pounds, just for “the fun of it?”  Well, first of all, we would all understand the tire would be much more likely to blow up and pull away from the rim because it was not built to be used that way.  It would be damaged by applying more pressure to it than it was built to take.  Enough said.

Peyronie’s Disease Institute has access to some really great Oriental herbal erection enhancing – not forcing – products.  These will easily and gently boost your erectile ability but not in such a forceful way that you will get hurt.  They surely do work, but with no side effects, they last a good 8-12 hours, and they are a whole lot less expensive than your prescription drugs.  Let me know if you are interested and I will give you some information about these wonderful and safe products.

Peyronie’s disease is all about the Peyronies plaque, because the Peyronie’s plaque causes all the problems we normally associate with this condition.  To back this idea up, and to show you are doing something that is potentially dangerous to your Peyronie’s disease by using erection enhancing drugs, let’s review some interesting research that took place about 15 years ago.

First, some background. According to two Peyronies disease researchers, Drs. J. A. Lopez and J. P. Jarrow, from the Department of Urology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, most of the erectile dysfunction that is associated with Peyronies disesae is proabbly not due to reduced blood supply coming into the penis. Hence, taking Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, or any erection producing drugs, is often not effective and when it is it could be dangerous when someone with PD any erection producing drug.

Let’s get through the technical material first and then I will put it all together as it relates to using these drugs because you have Peyronies.

In the study done by Lopez and Jarrow, they did a penile vascular (blood flow) evaluation; they tested the penis arteries (to determine blood flow coming into the penis), and they tested the penis veins (to determine the blood flow leaving the penis).

They tested 95 consecutive men who came to them for evaluation or treatment of Peyronie’s disease; of these 95 men, 19 were potent (able to become erect) and 76 were impotent (not able to become erect).  They also did the very same kind of penile vascular (blood flow) evaluation on 100 consecutive impotent men who did not have Peyronie’s disease so they could compare the condition of their blood vessels as it relates to erections and erectile dysfunction.

Potent men with Peyronie’s disease

After testing the 19 potent men who had Peyronie’s disease, they found only one (5%) of the 19 potent patients had abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis, and none (95%) had evidence of abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

Impotent men with Peyronie’s disease

After testing the 76 impotent men who had Peyronie’s disease, they found that 27 men (36%) had abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis, and 44 men (59%) had evidence of abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

Potent and Impotent men who did not have Peyronie’s disease

There was no significant difference in historical risk factors for impotence between the impotent men with or without Peyronie’s disease and the control population of impotent patients.

After testing the 100 men who did not have Peyronie’s disease they found they had about the same percent of abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis.  However, they found these same men had significantly less (16%) abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

So the big difference was that the impotent men (59%) with Peyronie’s disease had a whole lot more abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis, than the impotent men (16%) who did not have Peyronie’s disease.

This means that although men with Peyronie’s disease may suffer some impotence due to artery blood flow problems, the research proves that the primary and overwhelming cause of impotence in men with Peyronie’s disease is abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

So you ask, “What could be wrong with my venous blood flow leaving my penis?”  Answer:  your Peyronie’s plaque.

Peyronie’s plaque causes impotency

It is the Peyronie’s plaque that causes the veins of the penis to not close properly.  There are special valves within the veins of the penis that close off at special times, to trap the blood inside the penis – to create an erection.  If the veins do not trap the blood, no erection.  The presence of the plaque or scar material is the problem that causes the valves of the veins to not trap blood, hence a poor or absent erection.  Yes, there are surely many emotional reasons a man with Peyronies will develop impotency, but this vein problem is by far the primary physical reason for this erection problem that we all are interested in.

Imagine that you want to close a door to trap warm or cold air inside a room.  You try to close the door, but you cannot because there is something causing the door to not close all the way – perhaps the door is warped, or maybe there is something lying across the doorway like a doorstop and the door will not seal the room shut.  If the door cannot be closed fully, it will be difficult or impossible to close the door, and you cannot trap the air in that room. It is the same in Peyronie’s disease. If the valves of the veins cannot be closed fully, it will be difficult or impossible to close them, and you cannot trap the blood to create the erection.

The presence of one or more Peyronie’s disease plaques or scars can and will cause physical interference with the normal closing of the valves inside the penis veins and one or more areas of the penis stay soft, preventing intercourse.  It is as simple as that.

So your medical doctor, hearing that you are having a problem with impotence along with your Peyronie’s disease says to you, “Do not fear.  I have my magic prescription pad here.  I will happily write a prescription for  Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra and you will get an erection that will amaze and delight the woman you love, and amaze all your family, friends and neighbors.  Please pay the nurse at the front desk as you leave.”

I will write more about the potential dangers of erection producing drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra in relation specifically to Peyronies.  For this discussion it is sufficient for you to understand that Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra only bring more blood into the penis.  The do not and cannot help you to trap it there to create an erection.  This is why they may or may not work for you, and in fact, could potentially make your Peyronie’s disease worse.

For more information about the safe and effective treatment of Peyronie’s disease with Alternative Medicine, go to the Peyronie’s Disease Institute website.