COVID-19: preliminary research indicates that COVID-19 viral infection may affect sexual and reproductive healthSurgical intervention for a number of conditions may remove anatomical structures necessary to erection, damage nerves, or impair blood supply. ED is a common complication of treatments for prostate cancer, including prostatectomy and destruction of the prostate by external beam radiation, although the prostate gland itself is not necessary to achieve an erection. As far as inguinal hernia surgery is concerned, in most cases, and in the absence of postoperative complications, the operative repair can lead to a recovery of the sexual life of people with preoperative sexual dysfunction, while, in most cases, it does not affect people with a preoperative normal sexual life.ED can also be associated with bicycling due to both neurological and vascular problems due to compression. The increased risk appears to be about 1.7-fold.Concerns that use of pornography can cause ED have little support in epidemiological studies, according to a 2015 literature review. According to Gunter de Win, a Belgian professor and sex researcher, "Put simply, respondents who watch 60 minutes a week and think theyre addicted were more likely to report sexual dysfunction than those who watch a care-free 160 minutes weekly." Pathophysiology
Penile erection is managed by two mechanisms: the reflex erection, which is achieved by directly touching the penile shaft, and the psychogenic erection, which is achieved by erotic or emotional stimuli. The former involves the peripheral nerves and the lower parts of the spinal cord, whereas the latter involves the limbic system of the brain.
The drug Brindley injected into his penis was a non-specific vasodilator, an alpha-blocking agent, and the mechanism of action was clearly corporal smooth muscle relaxation. The effect that Brindley discovered established the fundamentals for the later development of specific, safe, and orally effective drug therapies.The current first-line treatment for ED, the oral PDE5 inhibitor, was introduced by Pfizer in 1999. Anthropology
Anthropological research presents ED not as a disorder but, as a normal, and sometimes even welcome sign of healthy aging. Wentzells study of 250 Mexican men in their 50s and 60s found that “most simply did not see decreasing erectile function as a biological pathology”. The men interviewed described the decrease in erectile function “as an aid for aging in socially appropriate ways”. A common theme amongst the interviewees showed that respectable older men shifted their focus toward the domestic sphere into a “second stage of life”. The Mexican men of this generation often pursued sex outside of marriage; decreasing erectile function acted as an aid to overcoming infidelity thus helping to attain the ideal “second stage” of life. A 56-year-old about to retire from the public health service said he would now "dedicate myself to my wife, the house, gardening, caring for the grandchildren—the Mexican classic". Wentzell found that treating ED as a pathology was antithetical to the social view these men held of themselves, and their purpose at this stage of their lives. In the 20th and 21st centuries, anthropologists investigated how common treatments for ED are built upon assumptions of institutionalized social norms.