Male Impotence and It's Treatments

Male impotence is the consistent inability to have or maintain a satisfactory erection. This condition is afflicting millions of men worldwide. Lack of potency is a malady few men will admit to and it's such a stigma, that it constitutes grounds for divorce in many American states.

The serious study of male impotence has only been undertaken in the last 18 years, a fact many of today's doctors attribute to the nature of the affliction - as well as its acutely personal location. Doctors found that most erectile dysfunction didn't take place between men's ears (as was always believed) instead they found found 80 to 90 percent of all chronic male impotency had a physical basis: high blood pressure has an effect, heart conditions, diabetes, smoking as do some of the medications used to treat these conditions.

Over 30 million American men suffer from Erectile Dysfunction (the medical term for male impotence). More than half of these 30 million men are under the age of 65. In Britain, recent studies have shown that one in every 20 men over the age of 40 are affected and 1 in every 4 men aged 65 and above are affected.

Men afflicted with repeated impotence tend to be middle-aged and older, with such a condition most common in men 60 years of age and older. Regardless of the age, however, many men who have this problem can be treated successfully.

Impotence can result from a wide variety of problems. As with any other ailment, when a person begins having this problem repeatedly, he needs to see a doctor. The doctor will want to rule out the possibility of disease, injury, or side effects from medicine.

Sex and the body. When a healthy man is sexually aroused, more blood starts flowing to the penis. The brain stimulates the release of chemicals in the penis, cyclic GMP, that causes the spongy erectile tissue in the penis to relax and the veins to expand. This causes blood to flow quickly to the openings in the penis and an erection is achieved. A full erection follows when the veins normally responsible for blood drainage, closes.

Men who suffer from male impotence have a shortage of the GMP chemical, causing the veins not to close properly. The result is that blood flows out of the penis as fast as it flows in.

How Male Impotence is diagnosed. Before male impotence is diagnosed, a comprehensive medical examination has to take place and a patient's medical history has to be examined. The physician would like to know some of the following information.

Use the Male Impotence Index below to grade your own sexual function before you diagnose yourself as being impotent.

Male Impotence Index
1. How do you rate your confidence that you could get and keep an erection?		1 very low	2 Low	3 Moderate	4 high	5 Very High
2. When you had an erection with sexual stimulation, how often were your erections hard enough for penetration?	0 No Sexual Activity	1 Almost Never/Never	2 A Few Times	3 Sometimes	4 Most Times	5 Almost Always/Always
3. During sexual intercourse, how often were you able to maintain your erection after you had penetrated your partner?	0 Did not attempt intercourse	1 Almost Never/Never	2 A Few Times	3 Sometimes	4 Most Times	5 Almost Always/Always
4. During sexual intercourse, how difficult was it to maintain your erection to completion of intercourse?	0 Did not attempt intercourse	1 Extremely Difficult	2 Very Difficult	3 Difficult	4 Slightly Difficult	5 Not Difficult
5. When sexual intercourse was attempted, how often was it satisfactory to you?	0 Did not attempt intercourse	1 Almost Never/Never	2 A Few Times	3 Sometimes	4 Most Times	5 Almost Always/Always

Overall score on the index ranges from 1 to 25. Higher scores indicate better erectile function: a score of 20 or higher indication a normal degree of erectile functioning. A low score of 10 or less indicates moderate to severe erectile dysfunction. Consult your doctor.

Upon diagnosis several measures can be taken depending upon the cause of the problem. Most common these days is the prescription of medications such as Viagra and Cialis. Treatment of heart conditions and diabetes as well as stress can also help, whilst herbal Viagra is also becoming popular. In severe cases or for additional help you can consider penis extensions.

Just making healthy diet changes can help in treating male impotence. Just as a high fat, high cholesterol diet plays havoc on your heart, it can do similar damage to your penis. Plaque from bad diet and sedentary lifestyle can line the walls of the arteries in and to your penis, reducing blood flow and causing impotence.

Smoking and Impotence
Besides affecting the blood vessels that supply the penis with blood, smoking can also damage the mechanism that helps the blood stay there and maintain the erection. But the bad news is that research suggests there's no guarantee that quitting reverses erectile dysfunction.

Andropause and Your Sex Drive
Partial Androgen Deficiency in the Ageing Male (or PADAM) also known as Andropause, is a hormone-related condition of low testosterone (or the male hormone) which usually occurs in males aged 40 and onwards.

Testosterone as cause of Impotence
Low levels of testosterone can affect almost every aspect of one's health including, low sex drive, excess fat storage, low energy levels, depression, impotence and rapid aging.

Cialis as Impotence Treatment
The Viagra upgrade Cialis. This medication has several improvements over the original Viagra.

Herbal Impotence Treatments
Some herbal alternatives are available that may be successful in helping treatment of impotence.

Male Impotence

Male Impotence And It's Treatments