Prime Time - Jane Fonda [93]
Besides the pills, there is a tool called a penis ring, a thick, flexible rubber ring that comes in varying widths and tightnesses. You slide it down the shaft to the base of the penis and it keeps the penis engorged with blood in the same way a tourniquet works. This is important because many older men experience venous leakage. There is one valve that allows blood to enter the penis and another one that keeps the blood in the penis and then lets it out. When that valve develops a leak, the man can get a hard-on but loses it right away. Pleasurable results can also be had by encircling the testicles within the ring as well as the shaft. Such a ring should be thicker and softer as well as larger. Then a second cock ring could be added, just around the penis, to give added strength to the erection. In fact, in general, softer and thicker is better than harder and thinner. Such skinnier rings can be painful. It may take a while before you or your partner finds a ring that is the right size and fit, but it is worth the investment! Some top-of-the-line rings come with vibrators on top for stimulating the clitoris as well as the penis during intercourse. Properly positioned, these rings can give tremendous pleasure to both partners. Along with lubricants, penis rings should be a permanent part of any senior’s sexual tool kit. Rings should not be worn for more than thirty minutes without taking them off for a short break to avoid any potential damage to the delicate penile tissue. Never fall asleep with one on!
Penile injections before sex can be effective. They are done with a very fine needle, and if applied at the part of the shaft where there are no nerves, they are painless. Eighty percent of the men who try these respond very well. It gives a man a predictable, reliable erection about five minutes after the injection. But as Dr. J. Francois Eid said in an Internet videoconference about erectile dysfunction, “I have a lot of compassion for men who try injections. It takes courage and also it doesn’t feel natural. Each time you want to make love, you have to excuse yourself and take an injection.” Dr. Eid also noted, “I have to tell you that approximately 80 percent of patients will drop out of injection therapy the first year. Over 50 percent of the patients that start injections stop in the first two months of therapy. So yes, it is effective. It is a good treatment. But it takes a lot of motivation to do it.”
Dr. Perelman said, “One thing to point out is by working with the man and his partner, we can actually improve that 80 percent dropout rate by helping the couple introduce their intimacy again in a way that takes into consideration the female partner’s needs as well as just providing an erection.”
Perhaps the partner could learn to give the injection and the couple could learn to see this joint effort (pardon the pun) as part of foreplay. I know it sounds so dramatic, sticking a needle into a penis, but with few nerve endings in the area where the needle is inserted, you really can’t feel anything.
The vacuum pump is a plastic tube that is placed over the penis. A hand-powered or battery-powered pump will activate the vacuum, drawing blood into the penis in the same way a breast pump works. Like injections, the vacuum pump works for 70 to 80 percent of men. Personally, I always found that breast pumps were too painful, and many men have found these pumps to be the same. The hair at the base of the penis may need to be trimmed or shaved and then, after an erection has been obtained, a rubber penis ring is rolled off the end of the pump to encircle the base of the penis so as to keep the blood trapped inside. The pump is a simple, one-time purchase that requires a prescription. If the erection from use of one of the ED pills begins to wane, the pump can be used to get it up again. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic