if you get a persistent or painful erection which is called priapism you need to be seen right away. believe it or not it’s common enough that everyone in the er will have seen it they’ll get you in. the doctors will first try to ice you up hoping that they can chill it. sometimes you can even squeeze the blood out and the erection will fade and that’s actually a good sign though it can be horribly painful. there are these phaso-dilators medications that will allow the blood vessels to expand to allow the blood to leave they can have you inhale those and sometimes that works. if that doesn’t work and the other techniques don’t work then usually the urologist will have to go in and actually extract the old thick blood causing the erection to go away and sometimes put in some fresh fluids to try to get the old sludging fluid to leave. we numb up the skin put in a needle and basically aspirate out pull out the old thick blood that’s no longer oxygenated it’s just static and getting old. and that allows the erection to fade and usually in a very short time men have resolution of the pain. the great thing about it is the sooner you act the better your chance for a normal sex life in the future. if you wait and i’ve seen some men that wait for 24 hours then your risk for complications permanent scarring permanent damage go way up.
what treatment can i expect at the er for my painful erection?