Erectile Dysfunction and Premature Ejaculation

Millions of men across the world today are suffering from sexual problems. It is really sad that every year, only about 20 lakhs of men out of some 30 million, open up about their sexual problems and get the required help; while the rest refrain from rightly addressing these issues and move into silent sufferings and depression. 

The scope of usual sexual incidents in males consists of four aspects, namely, sexual desire, erection, ejaculation and detumescence, i,e penile flaccidity. Erectile dysfunction or ED, and premature ejaculation or PE, are two of the most commonly found medical conditions that drive men into some serious sufferings that eventually harm their life with some irreversible damages. Hence it is really important to closely know about these two issues.

What is Erectile Dysfunction?

Erectile dysfunction is the condition of not being able to gain or sustain a penile erection, that is either hard enough or long-lasting enough to have optimum sexual pleasure, apart from the much-required intercourse. This particular condition might be caused by both psychological and physiological problems. 

What is Premature Ejaculation?

Premature ejaculation is the condition where a person cannot control his ejaculation; either before or during sex. There are two kinds of premature ejaculation, i,e primary premature ejaculation, where someone has always had the condition, and secondary premature ejaculation, where someone has recently developed the condition.

The generally-accepted definition is that if someone cannot delay their ejaculation for longer than 2 minutes, they have premature ejaculation. This is just a commonly-agreed number though. 

How are Erectile Dysfunction and Premature Ejaculation related?

• The two most common male sexual problems are premature ejaculation (PE) and erectile dysfunction (ED), but it is less widely known that these two sexual dysfunctions often come as a pair. 
• The degrees of ED and PE are often comorbid.
• The two conditions are linked because they are sexual dysfunctions experienced by men, but this isn’t the only connection.
• Both ED and PE can be caused by psychological factors such as anxiety or Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); while some people suffering from these conditions might have certain physical similarities.  
• Although both conditions can affect people of all ages, ED is more common in people over 40 years of age, and PE occurs more frequently in individuals aged 18–59 years. 
• Some medical experts are of the opinion that there is a strong link between ED and PE, where 30–60% of people with ED also have PE. 

Having said that, research has not yet established a causal link between both these conditions.

Can Erectile Dysfunction and Premature Ejaculation happen together? 

ED and PE can occur simultaneously, and their relationship is bidirectional. This means if a person has one of them, they may have an increased risk of the other.

For example, people with ED know they cannot sustain an erection. As a result, they may get into a mental state where they tend to develop a habit of rushing to ejaculate before they lose their erection, causing them to ejaculate prematurely. They may have difficulty changing this habit.

Likewise, many men with PE, might be overly worried about their sexual performance and develop performance anxiety, which again affects their ability to achieve and maintain a penile erection.

Can Erectile Dysfunction cause Premature Ejaculation?  

When someone experiences erectile loss during sex, he might just get into a vicious cycle, whereby he tries to focus on the sexual excitement, in order to avoid this loss. Unfortunately, this increase in sexual excitement can speed up ejaculation. Again, in order to avoid early ejaculation, one may find himself reducing the sexual excitement, which again leads to the loss of the penile erection. 

In either case, the patient is not very present at the moment. He is neither enjoying his partner’s company nor focusing on the pleasurable sensations of being touched by the partner. All these give rise to performance anxiety and detachment from the partner. 

So typically, addressing the symptoms of ED, in the first place, means boosting the confidence of maintaining erections. This means that anxiety tends to slow down, which helps to prevent premature ejaculation.

Medicinal treatment options for Erectile Dysfunction

There are certain pharmaceutical drugs available known as PDE5 inhibitors, that are quite effective against ED. There are several FDA-approved PDE5 inhibitors, available in the market, like Sildenafil | Vardenafil , Tadalafil  Dapoxetine, and avanafil; while lodenafil, udenafil, and mirodenafil are the other non-FDA-approved, yet commercially available ones. 

It is always advisable to go for a thorough diagnosis by an authorised medical practitioner and get the best suitable FDA-approved drug to cure the such ailment. Using these medications for a limited period of time can help to regain your confidence.  

Medicinal treatment options for Premature Ejaculation

There are quite a number of pharmaceutical drugs available for PE, that work by delaying the chemical reactions causing ejaculation by increasing serotonin and may double or triple your current time to ejaculate. Priligy or Dapoxetine is one of the most commonly recommended prescription drugs for premature ejaculation.